Contractor fined RM20,000 after pleading guilty to using fake documents for RM5m Felda project

An elderly contractor from Johor Bahru has been fined RM20,000 by the Sessions Court after pleading guilty to two charges of using fraudulent documents to secure a RM5 million road resurfacing and drainage project under a Felda scheme three years ago. The 50-year-old, Wan Shahrinizam Wan Ibrahim, admitted to the charges after they were read to him through an interpreter.

The judge, N. Kanageswari, ordered him to pay the fine and serve three months in prison for each charge if he failed to do so. The accused complied with the court's demands and paid the fine. The first charge alleges that he dishonestly used bank account statements from November 2022 to January 2023, which he falsely presented as genuine, to apply for the RM5 million project to resurface a village road and upgrade the drainage system at Felda Ciku 3 in Gua Musang, Kelantan.

The second charge states that he submitted a forged Letter of Acceptance of Tender, a formal written notice confirming the successful submission of a bid for the project, for resurfacing works and related repairs at Jalan Parit Yaani and Parit Botak in Batu Pahat. The contractor was charged under Section 471 of the Penal Code for fraudulently using a forged document and under Section 465 for the same offence, carrying a potential two-year jail term or a fine upon conviction.

However, the court accepted a plea of Take Into Consideration from lawyers Azalea Nazihah and Muhammad Denial against an additional related charge. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy public prosecutor, Irna Julieza Maaras, represented the prosecution in the case.