Peter Anthony found guilty of forgery
Published on: Thursday, May 26, 2022
By:
FMT, V Anbalagan
.jpg "Peter Anthony found guilty of forgery")
Peter Anthony was charged with forging a letter from the office of the Universiti Malaysia Sabah deputy vice-chancellor for system maintenance contract work. (Bernama pic)is
Kuala Lumpur: Former Sabah infrastructure development minister Peter Anthony has been found guilty of falsifying a letter from the office of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) deputy vice-chancellor for system maintenance contract work.
Sessions court judge Azura Alwi said the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
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The prosecution will now proceed to submit on sentencing before Azura pronounces the punishment to be imposed against Peter, 50.
Peter, as the then managing director of Syarikat Asli Jati, was accused of forging a letter from the office of the UMS deputy vice-chancellor dated June 9, 2014, by inserting a false statement with the intention of using it for fraudulent purposes.
The Melalap assemblyman was charged with commiting the offence at the office of the principal private secretary to the prime minister at the Perdana Putra building in Putrajaya between June 13 and Aug 21, 2014.
In her oral judgment, Azura said Peter’s defence was inconsistent, a bare denial and an afterthought.
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She said circumstantial evidence and the testimonies of prosecution witnesses revealed that only Peter had the opportunity to commit the offence.
“This court finds that although there is no direct evidence to suggest that you (Peter) have falsified (the document) by (writing) the title, there is circumstantial evidence and testimonies (to show that) only you had the opportunity to falsify (them).
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“These testimonies are enough (to show) that you were the one who forged the document,” she said.
She said Peter, a former Warisan vice-president, committed the offence with the dishonest intention to cheat.
“There is also no basis to doubt the credibility of the prosecution witnesses although two were subject to disciplinary action by the university,” she said.
Azura also said there was no basis for Peter’s defence in which he stated that he was prosecuted for political inclination.
She said Peter, who is now the Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) president, also stated in his defence that there was “no wrongful gain to him and wrongful loss to the authorities”.
“This court agrees with the prosecution that there is no need for them to prove that elements of cheating had taken place,” she said.
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