Kota Kinabalu: A 22-year-old bartender was charged in the Magistrate’s Court here, Tuesday, with trafficking 3,572gm of syabu.
Chong Jia Zhen was accused of committing the offence at 1.30am on Oct 26, this year at the W-8-3 unit at Beverly Hills apartment in Penampang.
However, no plea was taken from Chong, who appeared before Magistrate Lovely Natasha Charles, after the charge was read out to him.
The charge under Section 39B(1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, carries a punishment of either the death penalty or life in prison and whipping with a minimum of 15 strokes.
The prosecution applied for a new mention date while waiting for the chemist’s report and objected bail for Chong as the charge has no provision for bail.
Lovely fixed Dec 12 for further mention and ordered Chong, who was represented by counsel Ram Singh, to be further remanded.
In another case, a 32-year-old man was fined RM100 or two weeks’ jail for fraudulently having RM16,521 in his bank account, four years ago.
Stevent Janen Dwid admitted to having the money at 12.05pm on Nov 9, 2018 at the CIMB Bank, Api-Api Centre here, which he failed to give a satisfactory explanation on how he obtained them.
He had committed an offence under Section 22A (1) of the Minor Offences Ordinance which provides for a fine of up to RM100 or up to three months jail or both on conviction.
The court was informed by the prosecution that a complainant received a telephone call from MACC that she was involved in money laundering and was asked to transfer all money in her bank into a bank account which will be given later for the purpose of checking the source of money.
Panicked, the complainant then transferred RM16,521 from her ASB account into a CIMB Bank account under Stevent’s name.
Only after making the transaction did the complainant realise that she had been cheated by a scammer, said the prosecution.
Meanwhile, a 26-year-old woman was ordered to pay a fine of RM1,000 or one month’s jail for engaging in gambling activity.
Victoria Reachie Omar pleaded guilty before Magistrate Stephanie Sherron Abbie to committing the offence at 1.01pm on Oct 12 at the Salud Store, Salut Commercial Centre, KKIP.
She was charged under Section 7(2) of the same Act, which provides for a fine of up to RM5,000 or up to six months jail or both on conviction.
Deputy Public Prosecutors DK Afiqah Alya AK Johari @ PG Johari and Nurul Shafeerah Mad Iskim prosecuted.
