Fairul Ismazi, Mohd Khairul and Mohd Noh all wearing hooded jackets being escorted by MACC officers at the Alor Setar Sessions Court. — ZHAFARAN NASIB/The Star
ALOR SETAR: Three men have admitted in the Sessions Court here to committing tax fraud involving luxury cars that caused the country to lose RM33mil in taxes.
Mohd Noh Hussain, 47, Mohd Khairul Suberi, 35, and Fairul Ismazi Ishak, 46, pleaded guilty to alternative charges yesterday.
First accused Mohd Noh pleaded guilty to the first and second alternative charges while admitting to the remaining 10 alternative charges which were read to him by a court interpreter before judge Rohatul Akmar Abdullah.
For the first charge, Mohd Noh, a former sales and operations executive, admitted using a fake document which was supposedly a sworn statement dated May 6, 2014 at the Langkawi Customs office on May 21, 2014.
For the second charge, Mohd Noh admitted forging a Customs form with the intention to use it to deceive Langkawi Customs officers on June 1, 2014.
The offences under Section 471 of the Penal Code are punishable under Section 465 of the same Code, which carries a jail term of up to two years, a fine or both, upon conviction.
For second accused Mohd Khairul, he admitted using faked Customs forms for import shipments at the Langkawi Customs office on April 27, 2021.
For the second charge, he admitted forging another Customs form with the intention to deceive the Langkawi Customs office on April 21 and April 22, 2021.
The third accused, Fairul Ismazi, was charged with faking a Customs form for import shipment at the same location on Nov 22, 2021.
The offences fall under Section 471 of the Penal Code and are punishable under Section 465 of the same Code.
Lawyer Mohd Hakim Hamran, who represented all of the accused, pressed for a minimum sentence, saying that his clients’ guilty plea had saved the court’s time from having a lengthy trial.
Quah Chien Chien also represented the three accused.
He said his clients had been cooperative with Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigators and voluntarily attended the court proceedings.
MACC deputy public prosecutor Mohamad Fadhly Mohd Zamry said although Mohd Noh pleaded guilty to the first and second alternative charges, the court should take into consideration the remaining 10 alternative charges under Section 171A of the Criminal Procedure Code when delivering the verdict.
Mohd Afif Ali from MACC prosecuted in the case.
Rohatul said she would mete out the sentences today.
She granted bail of RM20,000 to Mohd Noh in one surety, RM10,000 for Mohd Khairul in one surety and RM5,000 for Fairul Ismazi in one surety.
It is learnt that another three members of the syndicate are expected to be brought to the Alor Setar Sessions Court today.
Earlier media reports said that graft investigators carried out a special operation after the Auditor-General’s Report 2022 highlighted shortages in the Langkawi Customs Department’s duty collection between 2012 and 2021.
According to the report, there was a leakage exceeding RM72mil in duty collection involving 100 luxury cars of makes such as Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Porsche.
This led to the MACC carriying out a special operation codenamed “Ops Eagle”.
In the operation, six members of a syndicate aged between 30 and 60 were arrested on July 13 last year when they presented themselves at the MACC office to get their statements recorded.
