Lorry driver spends birthday in jail for bribery

KUALA LUMPUR: A lorry driver is spending his birthday in prison after he was jailed for a week and fined RM10,000 for offering a bribe to a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer.

How Ah Lai, 45, was sentenced by Sessions Court judge Madihah Harullah after he pleaded guilty to the offence.

He had tried to bribe his way out after he was caught transporting sand from a mining area in Putrajaya at about 1pm on Feb 11 last year.

According to the charge sheet, How offered RM300 to MACC senior enforcer Mohd Zaki Johari, 34, as an inducement for him not to make a report that he was removing sand without a licence by the Lands and Mines Department.

The MACC and the Lands and Mines Department were conducting a check on the mining site in Precinct 20 after getting a tip-off.

The team had blocked a lorry laden with sand which was attempt- ing to leave the area. The lorry driver failed to produce proper documents.

How then arrived at the scene in a four-wheel drive and introduced himself as the owner of a sand mine in nearby Dengkil.

He offered the bribe and was arrested.

He had initially pleaded not guilty but changed his plea yesterday.

Defence counsel Datuk Rajpal Singh pleaded for leniency, saying that his client had repented and was saving the pleading guilty.

He urged the court not to impose a long prison sentence because How, the sole breadwinner of his family, has to support a wife, three children aged 17, 14 and 11, and his elderly mother.

Rajpal also told the court that it was How’s birthday.

Deputy public prosecutor Nurdihana Rosdi had called for a deterrent sentence.

How settled the fine. court’s time by