ALOR STAR: Three men today pleaded guilty at the Sessions Court to separate charges of using fake documents to commit tax fraud for luxury cars among non-residents of Langkawi.
The act had caused multi millions ringgit of losses to the government.
The first accused Mohd Noh Hussain, 47, from Kuah, Langkawi, pleaded guilty to two counts of alternative charges under Section 471 of the Penal Code.
For the first charge, the former sales and operations executive at Naza Italia Sdn Bhd (NISB) in Langkawi, pleaded guilty to a charge of submitting a fake sworn statement that the buyer of Ferrari FF, Ahmad Kamal Kasani, was a resident in the duty-free island in May 2014.
The accused later pleaded guilty to a charge of submitting a forged Customs Department's No 1 with a registration number K28106000016 on June 1, 2021.
Based on the case's facts, Ahmad Kamal had bought the car from NISB at the price of RM968,064.50 on May 24, 2014.
Based on the forged documents tendered by Mohd Noh declaring Ahmad Kamal was a resident of Langkawi, the department had imposed a duty fee of RM292,792.80 on the Ferrari FF when the car was taken out of Langkawi in 2021.
The court was told that actual Customs duty that was supposed to be imposed on Ahmad Kamal for the Ferrari FF was RM1,833.111.41 as a non-resident of the island.
Mohd Noh made the guilty pleas when the charges were read before Judge Rohatul Akmar Abdullah.
Under the charges, he is staring at up to two years of jail term or a fine or both.
The judge has fixed tomorrow to pass down the sentence, whereby the court will be taking into account the accused's guilty plea and the other 10 alternative charges for the same offences.
Also, at the same court, a dispatch Mohd Khairul Suberi, 36, pleaded guilty to two counts of charges for using the fake documents in committing tax frauds involving luxury cars bought by non-residents of Langkawi.
For the first charge, Mohd Khairul pleaded guilty of using a fake Customs Department's for Import Shipments (K1) with a registration number K28104001149.
He committed the offense at Langkawi Custom office on 27 April 2021.
For the second charge, the accused pleaded guilty to forging Customs Form for Import Shipments with a registration number K28104000943 to deceive the department between April 21 and April 22, 2021.
The charges were also framed under Section 471 of the Penal Code.
The third, accused who entered the guilty plea today, was Fairul Ismazi Ishak, 46, from Ulu Melaka, Langkawi.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of using a fake Customs Department Form for Import Shipments (K1) with a registration number K28111001217 at the department's Langkawi office on Nov 22, 2021.
The charge was also framed under Section 471 of the Penal Code.Lawyer Mohd Hakim Hamran and Quah Chien Chieh, who represented all the accused, pleaded for leniency as their clients had given full cooperation to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigators.
"They have also agreed to enter the guilty plea which has saved the court's time from a lengthy trial.
MACC deputy public prosecutors Mohamad Fadhly Mohd Zamry and Mohd Afif Ali urged the court to impose a deterrent punishment as a lesson to all accused and sending a clear message to the public following the recent rise of cases involving documents forgery.
Judge Rohatul said the court had subsequently decided to pass down the sentences on the trio tomorrow.
The court granted a RM20,000 bail for Mohd Nor, followed by RM10,000 bail for Mohd Khairul and RM5,000 bail for Fairul respectively.
It was reported that MACC had hauled seven people suspected members of a syndicate for illicitly reducing duties on luxury cars, resulting in a staggering loss of over RM33 million in taxes for the government.