KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — An HSBC bank officer and her husband who were charged with transferring and withdrawing money, totalling RM85,180, from the accounts of four victims of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370  have been given a month to appoint their counsel.

The grace period was given by Sessions Court Judge Norsharidah Awang following an application from the couple, Nur Shila Kanan, 33, and Basheer Ahmad Maula Sahul Hameed, 33, when the case came up for mention today.

She then set September 25 for mention.

Earlier, deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Fadhli Mahmud informed the court that the prosecution had not handed over any documents to the accused or lawyers representing them.

Last August 20, Nur Shila and Basheer Ahmad Maula pleaded not guilty to the charges before Sessions Court Judge Mat Ghani Abdullah.

Nur Shila was charged with 12 counts of the alleged offences, while her husband, a mechanic, was charged with four.

The charges against Nur Shila were for allegedly transferring money, totalling RM40,000, from an account belonging to Malaysian citizen Hue Pui Heng, into the account of a Chinese citizen Tian Jun Wei, and another RM35,000 into an account belonging to one Ali Faran Khan.

The charges were made under Section 4(1)(a) of the Computer Crime Act 1997, which carries a maximum fine of RM150,000 or jail term of 10 years, or both, if convicted.

Nur Shila also faced three counts of using as genuine fake documents to apply for a new debit card on Tian's name and to make two applications for local fund transfer from two saving accounts belonging Chinese national Ju Kun and a flight attendant, Tan Size Hiang.

She was also charged with using a false Internet Banking Service Request Form and using the name of Judy Margaret Lai to obtain a security device to activate the Internet banking  service.

The charges, under Section 471 of the Penal Code, carries a maximum jail term of two years, or fine, or both, if convicted.

Nur Shila was also charged with two counts of cheating her supervisors, Nor Aini Derus@Mat Rose and Mohd Fazli Mokhtar, by making them believed that the applications for the new debit card were made by Tian and Judy personally.

The offence under Section 417 of the Penal Code carries a maximum jail term of five years, or fine, or both, upon conviction.  

She was also charged with two counts of stealing RM2,530 from the accounts belonging to Ju Kun and Tan, an offence under Section 379 of the Penal Code which provides a maximum imprisonment of seven years, or fine, or both, if convicted.

Nur Shila also pleaded not guilty to four alternative charges of stealing money belonging to the four victims.

The offences were allegedly committed at her workplace at HSBC Bank in Lebuh Ampang here between May 14 and July 8.

Meanwhile, Basheer Ahmad Maula was charged with four counts of using Tian's debit and ATM cards to withdraw a total of RM7,650 in four transactions.

The offence under Section 4(1)(a) of the Computer Crime Act 1997, provides a maximum fine of RM150,000 or jail term of 10 years, or both, if convicted.  

He also faced four alternative charges under Section 379 of the Penal Code, for stealing money from the same account.

The offences were allegedly committed at HSBC Amanah automated teller machine in Ampang Point, Ampang here between 10.02am on May 15 and 11.28pm on June 29. — Bernama