A ‘Datuk’ and five others, one a woman, were charged with making false claims pertaining to transportation charges of over half a million ringgit to an air-conditioning company.
Former general manager of Panasonic Appliances Air-Conditioning Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Datuk R Shanmugam, 46, Yap Siew Hiong, 46, P Sugumaran, 50, C Karuppiah, 41, M Kanesan, 38, and V Murugesu, 55, were charged in the Shah Alam Sessions Court yesterday with making false claims, amounting to more than RM500,000, in transportation cost.
They, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges before Judge Adli Abd Ghalib.
Shanmugam faced a total of 93 charges, including 46 charges where he was jointly charged with Yap and Sugumaran, 19 joint charges with Karuppiah, 18 joint charges with Kanesan and seven joint charges with Murugesu.
All the charges were for allegedly cheating the staff and officers of Panasonic Appliances Air-Conditioning Malaysia by submitting fake invoices from five companies and making them believe that the claims were genuine.
The five companies involved were WLS Container Lines (M) Sdn Bhd, Green Valleys Resources, Pandan Cerah Sdn Bhd, Tiban Enterprise and Teguh Marine Inspection (M) Sdn Bhd,
The amount of claims involved ranged from RM1,600 to RM14,000, for a total of RM505,750.
The offences were allegedly committed at Lot 2, Persiaran Tengku Ampuan Seksyen 21, Shah Alam Industrial Site between April 17, 2008, and May 15, 2014.
The charges were made under Section 420 of the Penal Code read together with Section 34 of the same, which provides an imprisonment for up to 10 years and fine and whipping, if found guilty.
Yap, the lone woman, is general manager of WLS Container Lines, while Sugumaran is its managing director. Karuppiah is a Green Valleys Resources manager and Kanesan is a Pandan Cerah director). Murugesu is an employee of a company which provides transportation service to Panasonic Appliances Air-Conditioning Malaysia.
Shanmugam was allowed bail of RM93,000 (RM1,000 for each charge), with Yap allowed bail of RM46,000 (also RM1,000 per charge), and Sugumaran allowed bail of RM23,000 (RM500 per charge).
The other three were allowed bail of RM800 per charge, which meant that Karuppiah was granted bail at RM15,200, Kanesan at RM14,400 and Murugesu at RM5,600.
The court set March 26 for mention.
The prosecution was conducted by deputy public prosecutor Rizal Azani Zainal Adzam, while Shanmugam, Yap, Sugumaran, Karuppiah and Kanesan were represented by lawyers Hasshahari Johari Mawi and Mohamad Fuad Md Hussain, and Murugesu was represented by Purshotaman Puvanendran.