| Fadley Faisal |

THE Court of Appeal has revised a six years’ imprisonment sentence, reducing it to four years for an offender of counterfeiting money and related offences on an account of technicality leading up to the decision by the sentencing court.

Sudiman bin Mat Yassin, 37, was handed a six-year jail term by the Intermediate Court on October 31, 2018 after he pleaded guilty to making counterfeit money, and possessing and using it.

Sudiman was found to have counterfeited three pieces of BND500 note, six pieces of BND100 note, seven pieces of BND50 note, 10 pieces of BND20 note, one piece of BND10 note, 14 pieces of RM50 note and nine pieces of RM10 note, sometime between February and March, 2018 using an HP colour printer at his office when working his 1am to 4am shift.

The full scale of the defendant’s crimes was eventually unravelled when a woman went to purchase fuel for her car at the Tanjong Nangka filling station just before 11pm on August 25.

The pump attendant, suspicious of the BND500 note handed to her by the woman, went to examine it at the office under UV light.

Upon determining the note to be fake, the attendant filed a police report, prompting investigations that led to the discovery that the woman had received the money from the defendant. It was also found that the woman came to know of the defendant via the AsiaFreeChat.com chat site.

Following investigations, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) police summoned the defendant to their office and arrested him. Officers found six pieces of BND100 note, seven pieces of BND50 note, 10 pieces of BND20 note, one piece of BND10 note, 14 pieces of RM50 note, and nine pieces of RM10 note – all counterfeits – in his car parked at the CID office.

Court of Appeal President Justice Michael Peter Burrell, sitting with Justices Conrad Seagroatt and Michael Victor Lunn, allowed Sudiman’s application for reduction in sentence.

DPP Farhanah binti Pehin Dato Haji Suhaili represented the Public Prosecutor in response to the appeal.