Bank clerk jailed four years for RM88,800 CBT

KOTA KINABALU: A bank clerk was sentenced to a total of four years’ jail for two counts of criminal breach of trust (CBT) involving a sum of RM88,800 from customers’ accounts.

Sessions Court judge imposed the custodial sentence on Khairunnisa Ag Mahali, 31, after the latter pleaded guilty to the charges, yesterday.

On the first count, Khairunisa was sentenced to two years’ jail for committing CBT against property entrusted to her by transferring RM11,900 from a customer’s account, namely Rena Fazljn Raslan, and RM18,000 from Celcom Timur (Sabah) Sdn Bhd.

The offence took place at a bank premises at Metro Town, Jalan Lintas, Off Jalan Tuaran, here on March 23, 2018.

On the second count, she received another two years’ jail for committing a similar offence by transferring RM58,900 from a customer’s account, namely NCT Forwarding & Shipping Sdn Bhd, at the same place on March 26, 2018.

However, the court ordered Khairunnisa’s jail sentence to be served concurrently.

In mitigation, Khairunnisa, who was not represented, prayed for leniency and asked for a bond of good behaviour instead of a prison sentence.

She said she had two children and one of them was still breastfeeding.

Khairunnisa also said she was very remorseful and promised not to repeat a similar offence.

Her parents, moreover, are currently under her support and she also had started paying back the money by installments, which started last year.

However, deputy public prosecutor Nureen Natasha Mohd Raffie requested for an adequate sentence to be imposed against the accused on the grounds that the offence is rampant and had involved a big amount of money.

Facts of the case stated that the branch manager of the bank, who was a complainant in the case, was informed of suspicious transactions occurring in an account which belonged to a bank staff.

There were 14 transactions of credit transfers amounting to RM88,800 in Khairunisa’s account dated on March 23 and 26, 2018.

Further investigation found that the transactions were invalid which was made by Khairunnisa from three customers’ account and without the permission of the customers.