Liaw (left) with his counsel Ronny (middle) after his acquittal on Monday.
KOTA KINABALU (Nov 20): A businessman was freed by a Magistrate’s Court here on Monday from two charges of cheating his younger brother over the latter’s company properties in order to apply for bank loans 17 years ago.
Magistrate Wan Farrah Farizza Wan Ghazali acquitted and discharged Liaw Hen Vui, 60, from both the charges under Section 420 of the Penal Code without calling for his defence.
The magistrate ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against Liaw.
The indictment provides for a jail term of up to 10 years and with whipping and also liable to a fine, upon conviction.
On the first count, the accused was alleged to have cheated his younger brother, who is the owner of the company, by inducing the victim to hand over three shop lots to him in order to put up the shop lots as collateral for a bank loan at a bank branch here on July 21, 2006.
On the second count, he was accused of dishonestly inducing the victim to hand over eight properties to him for the same purpose at another bank branch here on May 7, 2008.
The charges also stated that Liaw had allegedly obtained these properties without any payment and made a verbal agreement to give part of these loan money to the said company but he allegedly did not do so.
The prosecution had called ten witnesses to testify against Liaw who was represented by counsel Ronny Cham and Ian Cham.