TAWAU: Five men were separately charged in the Sessions Court here Friday with using forged documents to obtain quotations for the lease of a school canteen in Semporna, while a woman was charged with abetting them.
All of them pleaded not guilty to the charge before judge Abu Bakar Manat.
The accused are Mohd Hafiz Irawan, 34; Masri Nulhadi, 45; Abdul Jalil Mohammad Hassan, 52; Mohd Nasir Muhammad, 34; Darwin Kembal, 32, and housewife Asmah Moong, 42.
They were charged with using forged bank statements to obtain quotations for the lease of school canteens in Semporna for a period of two years from Jan 1, 2018.
All the offences were allegedly committed in 2017 at the Semporna District Education Office.
Mohd Hafiz, who works in a maintenance department of a company, was charged with three counts of using false documents, namely Maybank account statements of a company, R & E Combine, dated June 30, July 31 and Aug 31, 2017, to obtain a quotation for the lease of the canteen at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Bukit Lalang, Semporna.
He was also charged with using a forged business licence of R & E Combine, dated Jan 3, 2017, for the purpose.
The offences were allegedly committed on Oct 26, 2017, at the Semporna District Education Office.
As for Masri, who is unemployed, he was charged with three counts of using the Maybank account statements for the months of June 30, July 31 and Aug 31, 2017, of an enterprise by the name of Pemborong Asmah, to obtain a quotation for the lease of the SK Gelam-Gelam canteen.
The housewife, who is his wife, is charged with abetting him.
Abdul Jalil, who is also unemployed, was charged with using forged documents of Maybank statements of Irfan YZ Enterprise for a quotation for the lease of the SK Terusan canteen.
He was charged with committing the offence at the Semporna District Education Office on Nov 1, 2017.
As for Mohd Nasir, who is a boat skipper, and Darwin, a shop assistant, they were charged with using forged bank statements of Marikaya Enterprise and Putera KS Enterprise, respectively, to obtain quotations for the canteen at SK Bubul 2 and SK Pulau Bait, respectively.
All the charges against them were framed under Section 471 of the Penal Code which provides and imprisonment for up to seven years and fine, if found guilty.
Judge Abu Bakar Manat allowed all of them bail of RM10,000 in one local surety each and set Dec 1 for mention of the case involving Masri, Abdul Jalil, Darwin and Asmah, and Dec 2 for the case involving Mohd Hafiz dan Mohd Nasir.
The prosecution was conducted by prosecuting officer Rekhraj Jaswant Singh, while all the accused were unrepresented.
