Man freed from dishonestly concealing RM79,000

Kota Kinabalu: A 32-year-old man was freed by the Magistrate’s Court, here, Friday, from a charge of dishonestly concealing RM79,000 belonging to a woman.

Magistrate Stephanie Sherron Abbie discharged and acquitted Tahir Ruddin Tahang without calling for his defence, ruling that prosecution failed to prove a prima facie against Tahir.

Tahir was alleged to have dishonestly concealed RM79,000 belonging to  Kareen Lim Siau Yen in a bank account registered under his name at 5.19pm on April 18, 2019 at the RHB Bank here.

The charge under Section 424 of the Penal Code carries an imprisonment of up to five years, or with fine, or both, if found guilty.

The trial which commenced on Nov 12, 2019 saw three witnesses called to testify by the prosecution before closing its case on March 9, this year.

Inspector Suzie @ Stephanie Kupit prosecuted.

Tahir was represented by counsel Dominic Chew Ban Huat.

In another case, two men were sentenced to 14 months’ jail each for keeping a stolen car engine.

Micxlery Timong, 27, and Datu Abdullah D. Batul, 36, pleaded guilty before Magistrate Lovely Natasha Charles to having the stolen car engine belonging to Tracy James at 1pm on April 3 this year at a house at Kg Lebak Engad Jalan Port Usukan in Kota Belud.

The court heard that Tracy had on March 26 this year lodged a police report that her Perodua Kelisa car parked near her rented room was missing.

Inspector Kelvan Elson Maik prosecuting, said both Micxlery and  Abdullah were arrested by police following the police report and a car engine was recovered after their arrest.

Both Micxlery and Abdullah were charged under Section 411 of the Penal Code which carries a jail term of between six months and five years or fine or both, upon conviction.