Fadley Faisal

The Magistrate’s Court yesterday handed a 16-month jail term to a local man who pleaded guilty to stealing earthing cables belonging to the government.

Magistrate Kamaliah Fadhilah binti Haji Ibrahim said that Azri bin Haji Husain’s act of stealing government property is a serious offence and that it is aggravated by his long list of previous convictions with his release from prison in April 2019, despite his instant guilty plea which is a mitigating factor.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Aeny Zullizam revealed the turn of events in court yesterday where a clerk of the Department of Adat Istiadat Negara and a person reading the electric metre conducted a routine inspection and went inside the Adat Istiadat building, Jalan bendahara, Berangan power station at 8am on August 27, 2019.

They found the back-up generator damaged and some cables missing.

The Adat Istiadat clerk informed his officer.

At 11.40am, the clerk and his officer went to check the damage when the clerk heard suspicious sounds inside the power station.

They entered the power station and saw a pair of shoes and a bag. While going out, they saw the defendant hiding behind bushes.

They shouted at the defendant who ran away and jumped over the fence.

The clerk went to seek help while the officer went inside the power station.

The officer found the defendant inside the power station again and shouted for help.

The defendant escaped through the aluminium louvers and ran away.

The officer and other staff gave chase and apprehended him. He was later handed over to the police upon lodging a report.

Police investigations revealed that the defendant had a partner-in-crime who is still at large.