SEBERANG PERAI, Feb 24 — The Butterworth Sessions Court jailed a Penang Island City Council (MBPP) worker for a day and fined her RM20,000 after she admitted to five charges of graft involving RM16,800.
Zamira Juneed, 38, admitted to using her position as an architecture assistant officer from the heritage conservation department of MBPP to obtain gratification from five companies as an inducement to speed up the application process of land conversion from residential buildings to hotels.
She obtained gratification amounting to RM16,800 in her bank account at the Butterworth Maybank on five different occasions between January 14 in 2015 and September 22 in 2016.
She was charged under Section 16 (a)(B) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 and is punishable under Section 24 (1) of the same act which carries a jail sentence of not more than 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount or RM10,000, whichever is higher upon conviction.
During mitigation, Zamira, who was unrepresented, appealed for a lighter sentence as she will be dismissed from her job after this and has to support her husband who requires heart surgery.
“I have two children aged 12 and 10-years-old and my husband lost his job in September last year due to Covid-19,” she told the court in between tears.
She apologised and expressed regret for her actions while appealing for a minimal fine and not to be jailed.
Sessions court judge Ahmad Azahari Abdul Hamid, in sentencing her to one day jail and a fine of RM20,000, allowed an application from the MACC Deputy Public Prosecutor S. Selvaranjini to take into consideration the combining of the sentence for other charges into the charge with the highest amount of bribe money received.
The consideration was made after taking into account the mitigation by Zamira with regards to the charges against her.
Zamira was ordered to pay the fine of RM20,000 failing which she will have to serve six months jail.
