Former DO gets one day’s jail and RM10,000 fine
Former district officer Wong See Meng was sentenced to one day’s jail and fined RM10,000 by the High Court here yesterday for corruption.
Wong was charged under Section 17(a) of the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission Act 2009 and punishable under Section 24 of the same Act.
The section provides for a 20 years’ jail and a fine not less than five times the bribe amount or RM10,000 whichever is higher.
Wong was discharged and acquitted by the Special Court dealing with anti- corruption cases in January this year.
The MACC then made an appeal against the decision.
On Tuesday, High Court judge Lee Heng Cheong found that the lower court had erred in acquitting and discharging Wong, thus set aside the order of acquittal and discharge.
He then ordered that an order of conviction be entered against Wong.
In his mitigation, defence counsel Orlando Chua said Wong was at that time 51 years old, was married with three children and had been a civil servant all his life.
He said Wong received honours such as Pingat Perkhidmatan Berpati, Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang, and was responsible for the Sibu District Office securing the ISO status.
“Respondent was on the verge of an early retirement after his long service as a civil servant and with this conviction, he will not likely to be incarcerated but he also now stands to lose all his pensions and gratuities and will literally be made a man of straw as he is now 57 years of age and realistically too late in the day to launch any career of significance,” he said.
Lee, having considered submissions from the learned parties, the circumstances of the case, the antecedent of Wong and public interest, imposed an imprisonment of one day and a fine of RM10,000 in default six months’ imprisonment.
Wong was first brought to the court to face a charge of corruption involving RM500 on April 10 last year, and he pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Wong committed the offence on Dec 31, 2011 at about 11.15am at Sibu District Office in Wisma Sanyan.
The charge said he had corruptly obtained cash of RM500 from lawyer Stephen Lu as a reward to approve a letter of administration for Lu’s client, Chinese national Zhuo Jing.