Company MD gets 10 years' jail for Umrah package fraud

SUNGAI PETANI - A managing director of a company was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the magistrate's court here after he was found guilty of 23 counts of fraud related to umrah and Egypt tour package between 2015 and 2016.

Magistrate Arif Mohamad Shariff made the decision after finding that the prosecution had succeeded in proving the case beyond reasonable doubt against the accused Misbahalmunir Omar, 56.

The magistrate handed down a 10-year prison sentence for each charge, totalling 230 years, and allowed the sentences to run concurrently from the date of his arrest.

In addition, the court also exempted the accused from being sentenced to whipping as he was over 50 years old and allowed the defence's request to postpone the sentence pending appeal at the High Court.

The court then set a bail of RM88,000 with one surety and ordered the accused to surrender his international passport until the appeal process is completed.

According to the facts of the case, Misbahalmunir who at that time was the MD of the company Raudah Mawaddah Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd, registered at Jalan Kuala Ketil, here, had dealt with an individual to organise an umrah group and a trip to Egypt in 2015.

The complainant in the case, Amzari Halim, a consultant and mutawwif (pilgrimage guide) was asked by the accused to deposit money in stages into the bank account provided for the purchase of round trip tickets.

However, the accused did not inform the complainant that his company had gone out of business since Jan 14, 2015 by order of the Alor Setar High Court and the accused also asked the complainant to deposit the tour members’ payments into the bank accounts belonging to him, his wife and the company's employees.

A total of 56 transactions were made between Nov 2, 2015 to Jan 28, 2016 with a total of RM434,250 involving 202 participants.

The accused also sent the ticket itinerary of all the participants to the complainant where the flights were scheduled on Jan 29 and 30, 2016.

However, after the complainant and participants arrived at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) it was found that all the ticket itinerary provided by the accused were invalid and did not exist and a police report was lodged.

The accused was charged in the magistrate's court here on June 26, 2018 with 23 counts of deceiving the complainant into depositing money collected from 202 participants amounting to between RM2,000 and RM36,600. - BERNAMA