PENANG: Two men were jailed four years each and ordered to be whipped by the Sessions Court here yesterday for committing a RM1.4 million gold bar heist at a factory here two years ago.Judge Rosilah Yop convicted Ooi Eng Hiap, 26, and Chuan Guan Teik, 27, after ruling that the defence had failed to cast a doubt on the prosecution’s case.
Besides the jail term, Ooi received three strokes of the rotan while Chuan received two strokes for robbing the Legend Art Gold factory of 8kg of gold bars, 5kg of gold jewellery, cash, recording equipment and a closed-circuit TV camera processing unit, all worth RM1.4 million, at about 11pm on Dec 29, 2008.
They were jailed another four years from robbing Cheah Saw Zhen, 23, of a pair of earrings, a Toyota Vios car, two handphones and a laptop at the same place and time.
Rosilah ordered the sentences to run concurrently from yesterday for Ooi and from Jan 12 for Chuan.
She, however, allowed the defence application for a stay of execution of the sentence pending appeal and released them on bail of RM20,000 with one surety each.
Earlier, in passing sentence, Rosilah said she took into account the facts of the case, public interest, the interest of the accused and the trauma caused to the victim.
“With people like you, the society will not be peaceful. You have done a heinous thing to the victim (Cheah).
“You robbed her of her belongings and injured her. I hope that this punishment will serve as a lesson to you two and a deterrent to others who intend to commit similar offences,” she said. — Bernama