SHAH ALAM: A 40-year-old Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) contractor pleaded guilty at the Sessions Court here for deceiving the owner of a kopitiam, located in Puchong, over a modification to a TNB electricity meter.
S.Thiagarajan, who was accused of committing the offence on March 19, was jailed for a week and fined RM3,500 by Judge Mohd Nasir Nordin after he pleaded guilty to an alternative charge.
Judge Mohd Nasir ordered for the sentence to begin from March 20, which is the date of Thiagarajan’s remand, and imposed an additional six months imprisonment if the accused failed to pay the fine.
According to the facts of the case, Thiagarajan and his colleague had inspected the kopitiam’s TNB meter and found that the meter had been tampered to steal electricity.
Following this, Thiagarajan informed the 29-year-old shop owner that he could be fined up to RM2,500 and asked for an inducement of RM4,000 for the matter not to be reported to TNB.
After negotiations with the shop owner’s mother, an agreement was reached for a cash payment of RM780 to be made to Thiagarajan and the balance of RM1,720 to be deposited into his bank account.
The kopitiam owner then lodged a complaint with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) which resulted in Thiagarajan being arrested the following day at a carpark also in Puchong.
Thiagarajan could have been jailed up to five years or fined or both for the offence under Section 417 of the Penal Code.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Asmaa' Zamri prosecuted while Thiagarajan was unrepresented.
The father of four, pleaded for a lenient sentence saying that he had to support his children aged between four and nine, and that he has been suffering from a hernia for the last four years but has yet to undergo surgery.
He added that his income had decreased tremendously as he was only able to get two to three jobs weekly.
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