JOHOR BARU: The fine for air pollution offences committed by a company in Pasir Gudang has been doubled from RM320,000 to RM640,000 by the High Court following an appeal by the prosecution.
The prosecution had appealed the lower fines previously imposed by the Sessions Court.
The Johor Baru High Court ordered P Tech Resources Sdn Bhd to pay a total fine of RM640,000 for eight administrative charges, up from the initial decision of RM320,000 last year.
High Court judge Justice Abu Bakar Katar granted the prosecution’s appeal for the fine to be increased following arguments from both sides.
“The court decided to increase the fine from RM40,000 to RM80,000 for each of the eight charges (against the respondent),” he said yesterday.
P Tech Resources’s director, Yap Yoke Liang, was present during the court proceedings.
On Nov 30 last year, P Tech Resources was fined RM40,000 for each of the eight administrative charges under the Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations 2014.
Among the eight offences committed by the company were failure to operate and maintain its air pollution control systems to ensure the components were functioning well, failure to instal the relevant equipment to monitor air pollution levels on its premises, and failure to monitor liquid flammable substances.
The same day in 2019, lorry driver N. Maridass received a RM100,000 fine for illegally disposing of oil sludge, a scheduled waste product, in Sungai Kim Kim, causing pollution.
The Environment Department then appealed the sentences on Dec 4 last year.
Following that, the prosecution filed an appeal with the High Court, requesting that P Tech Resources pay a maximum fine of RM100,000 for each of the eight charges.
When delivering his judgement, Justice Abu Bakar stated that the prosecution cannot link Maridass’ plea of wrongdoing to the respondent’s original offences to the Sungai Kim Kim pollution incident.
“This is because the facts of the case did not state that Maridass released the waste produced from the pyrolysis of old tyres from the respondent’s factory,” he said.
Justice Abu Bakar also said the Sessions judge, in his earlier judgement, had failed to appreciate the purpose of the Environment Quality (Clean Air) Regulations 2014 as enacted by Parliament.
“The Sessions Court had focused its mind on the eight administrative offences committed by the respondent. If the Environment Department did not conduct checks on the respondent’s factory, the offence would have taken place continuously and caused bad air pollution to the surrounding residents.
“The Sessions judge also failed to consider the frequency of air pollution cases that occur in Johor,” added Justice Abu Bakar.
Deputy public prosecutors Khairul Azreen Mamat, Abdul Ghafar Ab Latif, Nurliyana R. Azmi, and Sharifah Natasha Syed Ahmad appeared for the prosecution, while P Tech Resources was represented by lawyers N. Subramaniam and S. Selvantheran.
