Tuesday October 27, 2009
Manager and lawyer plead guilty to CBT
KUALA LUMPUR: A lawyer and a manager of a firm were sentenced to five years’ jail and three years’ jail, respectively, by the Sessions Court here for criminal breach of trust involving RM3mil.
Judge Rozana Ali Yusoff handed down the sentence after Rosmaniza Osman, 34, and R. Rozalind Sakunthala, 47, pleaded guilty to the offence. When handing down her judgment, Rozana said she considered the legal profession an honourable one and found that both the accused had smeared the good name of the profession.
“When a client hires you, it’s an act of faith and trust. You are paid a fee for your services and when you commit a breach of trust, it affects the public’s trust in the legal profession,” she said yesterday.
Rosmaniza and Rozalind were jointly charged with committing criminal breach of trust at the firm of Messrs Ros & Associates at Wisma Selangor Dredging, here, between March 9 and July 4, 2005, after they were entrusted with RM3mil by Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd.
The firm was given the money after they signed a stakeholder agreement with Maju Holdings in March 2005, which at the material time was tendering for a Bank Negara project.
The money was never returned.
Both claimed trial initially, but changed their plea at the end of the defence case to plead guilty yesterday.
In her submissions, deputy public prosecutor Nahra Dollah urged the court to consider the fact that Rosmaniza was a lawyer who had smeared the good name of the profession.
Defence counsel N. Rajan, however, mitigated that Rosmaniza had been struck off the Roll of Advocates and Solicitors, which meant there would be no opportunity for a repeated offence.
He also said that the Court of Appeal had in 2006 ordered both the accused to pay Maju Holdings the RM3mil in a civil suit filed against the two.
However, in passing sentence, Rozana said that up till now, no money had been paid to the company. “In this case, nothing has been paid and I do not see any effort made to return the money. I also do not see any remorse shown,” she said, and ordered for the sentence to commence immediately.
Source:
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