Ex-court clerk jailed, fined for receipt cancellation

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KOTA KINABALU: The Sessions Court here yesterday sentenced a former courthouse clerk to a day’s jail and fined her RM15,000, in default, two months’ jail for unauthorized use of a computer password to cancel a payment receipt for a paid court fine.

Judge Ishak Bakri imposed the sentence on Abdul Malik Awang Abd Hamid, 35, after he pleaded guilty to the charge.

He admitted to cancelling a payment receipt for a RM10,000 fine paid by Surnani Naryo at the Kota Kinabalu Courthouse Complex payment counter on February 28, 2012.

The accused had done so by accessing a password belonging to account assistant Jane Johona Saimon @ Jane Johana Simon to cancel the issuance of the said receipt with the purpose of causing losses to the government for personal gain.

The charge under Section 4 (1) (a) of the Computer Crimes Act 1997 and punishable under Section 4 (3) of the same Act carries a fine of up to RM150,000 or maximum ten years’ jail, or both, upon conviction.

According to the facts of the case, the accused was on duty when Surnani paid a RM10,000 fine at the courthouse payment counter.

However, a discrepancy was discovered when it was found that there was a cancellation of the receipt made under Jane Johona’s name.

Further investigations then revealed that the accused had made the cancellation through the fraudulent access of Jane’s password and account on the computer used to issue the receipt.

The money was not registered in the government’s revenue in an audit check by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Sabah Branch and it was later found to have been misused by the accused.

The accused, through counsel PJ Periera, mitigated on account for his remorse and thus far, clean record since his 14 years’ service as a civil servant.

He also mentioned that the accused would lose his current job as chief financial clerk at the Tawau Immigration Department as a consequence of the conviction.

In reply, prosecuting officer Michael Joimin, standing in for deputy public prosecutor Joyce Blasius of the MACC, pleaded for an appropriate sentence that would serve as a lesson to the accused.

He added that the accused’s actions had jeopardised the image of the staff in the courts and the judiciary department.