PETALING JAYA: A former senior executive of Yayasan Budi Penyayang was sentenced to a five-year jail-term by the Sessions Court here today on four counts of abetting criminal breach of trust by misusing the foundation’s property amounting to RM972,936.35, nine years ago.
Judge Datin Fadzlin Suraya Mohd Suah passed the sentence against Helmy Abdul Halim, 43, after he had changed his confession on the first day of the hearing of his case today.
The court sentenced him to a five-year jail sentence for each of the charges and ordered the sentences to run concurrently, starting today.
According to the four charges, Helmy, who was a senior finance and administration executive and entrusted with a sum of RM972,936.35, belonging to the foundation, was charged with abetting his wife, Shanizarina Shamsuddin, who was also the finance executive at the foundation, in misusing the money for a personal purpose.
All the offences were allegedly committed between April 2010 and November 2013, at the foundation premises at Jalan Equine, Taman Equine, Seri Kembangan, Serdang, here. He was charged under Section 408 of the Penal Code read together with Section 109 of the same code which carries a maximum jail term of 14 years with whipping and fine.
According to the facts of the case, a police report was lodged against the wife of the accused after the chairman of the foundation, Ariff Farhan Doss found that a sum of money had been transferred to the personal account of the accused since 2010.
An investigation found that the money was deposited into a bank account owned by Helmy by his wife (Shanizarina) for a private purpose which was to pay the couple’s illegal moneylender.
Earlier, Deputy public prosecutor Ashyraf Ashy’ari Kamaruzzaman urged the court to impose a severe deterrent sentence against the accused taking into account the huge amount of losses of almost RM1 million.
“Various charity activities could take place with that amount of money, not to mention the money should be used for a good cause, in accordance with the name of Yayasan Budi Penyayang.
“Therefore, I urge for a sentence that could give a lesson to the accused and the public on the seriousness of the crime,“ he said.
However, the accused who was unrepresented appealed for a lenient sentence. — Bernama
