Kota Kinabalu: A 40-year-old Sarawakian who is currently serving sentence for an offence related to mule account schemes, was jailed four years for dealing with unlawful transactions involving a sum of RM111,668 using his own bank account.
Sessions Court Judge Amir Shah Amir Hassan meted out the sentence to Wilson Anak Penchen who pleaded guilty to the charge against him.
Wilson had unlawfully involved directly in a transaction involving the money using his bank account at a financial institution between Dec 25, 2024 and Jan 7 this year at the Taska Mary Land in Penampang.
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});The offence under Section 424C(1) of the Penal Code carries a jail term of between three and ten years, or a fine of between RM10,000 and RM150,000, or both, on conviction.
In handing down the sentence, the court stated that he had taken into account the seriousness of the case and even though Wilson did not have any previous crime record but had caused loss to the complainant in the case.
The court also added that the court wanted to send a message to the public to not involve in the mule account schemes.
The court ordered Wilson to serve the jail sentence from the date of his conviction at the Puncak Borneo prison in Kuching, Sarawak as requested by Wilson.
In asking for leniency during mitigation, Wilson, who was not represented, asked for the sentence to be served concurrently with his previous sentence.
However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Bryan Francis urged the court to impose a heavy sentence as to give a lesson not only to Wilson but would-be offence adding that, do not compromise with anyone who involved in the commercial crime.
Bryan informed the court Wilson was fined RM11,000 in default 15 months’ jail for an offence related to mule account schemes, but he failed to pay the fine and served the 15 months’ jail.
About the money involved, Bryan told the court that the money was still frozen as it was related to ongoing investigation.
The court heard that on Jan 26, 2024, the complainant had joined in an investment scheme offered through a Facebook advertisement by clicking on a link which then redirected to a WhatsApp application to communicate with an agent.
The complainant joined the company and made a total of 53 transactions to increase business capital, reaching a total of RM2,173,814.50.
One of the payment transactions was deposited into an account belonged to Wilson amounting to RM111,668.
The complainant who felt that he was cheated as there were no profits and the agent continued to urge the complainant to make payments, then subsequently lodged a police report.
Investigation revealed that Wilson was one of the account holders who had received payments from the complainant.