Loo covering his face with a jacket as he was coming out from the Ipoh Sessions court January 15, 2019. — Photo by Sylvia Looi

IPOH, Jan 15 — A 52-year-old businessman, who was charged with 22 counts of making fraudulent Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund claims in 2017, was today slapped with an additional 224 charges amounting to RM19 million in false claims.

Loo Peng Wah pleaded not guilty after the charges were read to him in Chinese in front of Sessions court judge Azman Abu Hassan here.

He was charged with making false claims in the GST-03 statement between November 2015 and May 2016.

The offences were allegedly committed at house number 17, Laluan Ipoh Permai, Taman Ipoh Permai.

The charges, framed under Section 89(1)(b) of the GST Act 2016, provides a fine of up to 20 times the amount of tax owed, or imprisonment for up to five years, or both.

Azman allowed Loo bail of RM500,000 with one surety and set March 1 for mention.

He was also ordered to surrender his passport to the court and to report himself at the Ipoh Customs office every month.

Earlier, Customs prosecuting officer S. Thanaganatchya proposed a bail of RM30,000 for each charge.

However, Loo’s counsel, Wan Azizuddin Wan Mohammed, objected to the amount and said Loo was facing other charges.

“He was only released on bail in December last year after the Sessions court agreed to lower his bail from RM715,000 to RM165,000,” he said.

Wan Azizuddin said in spite of knowing he was facing more charges, Loo came to court at 8.25am today.

“He was sitting at the gallery since morning waiting for his case,” he said, adding that his client also presented himself at the Customs Department on January 10 as per the requirement of the earlier charges.

The defence, who proposed a bail of RM1,000, also said Loo had health problems.

“When he was held in prison, he had to be taken to hospital several times,” Wan Azizuddin said.

Earlier, it took some 45 minutes for the interpreter to read all the charges to Loo.