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A professor from Universiti Teknologi MARA's (UiTM) Sungai Buloh campus was fined by the Shah Alam Sessions Court on Tuesday, 17 June, after admitting to falsifying claims related to non-existent research work in 2021
Judge Datuk Mohd Nasir Nordin imposed the sentence on Professor Dr Hapizah Md Nawawi, 65, after she changed her plea to guilty on six alternative charges linked to the offences.
According to the New Straits Times, the court stipulated a 21-month jail term should she fail to pay the fine, which she subsequently settled.
The sentence was imposed after the remaining 12 alternative charges against Hapizah were taken into consideration under Section 171A of the Criminal Procedure Code.
On the six charges, Hapizah confessed to conspiring with Amirah Mohd Ariff to falsify claims of RM14,000 in monthly research assistant salaries
However, it was established that Amirah had never conducted any work for the research project.
The project was purportedly titled 'Mechanism of Drone-assisted Technology on Efficiency of Mass Disaster Victim Identification'.
Hapizah carried out the fraudulent activities at the campus' Institute of Pathology, Laboratory, and Forensic Medicine between April and October 2021.
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Image via Sora Shimazaki/PexelsThe charges were framed under Section 109 of the Penal Code, read in conjunction with Section 471, and are punishable under Section 465
Upon conviction, each offence carries a maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment, a fine, or both.
The prosecution was led by deputy public prosecutor Muaz Ahmad Khairuddin, while the accused was represented by lawyer Shamsul Sulaiman.
On 31 July 2024, Hapizah had claimed trial to a total of 18 charges related to submitting RM38,000 worth of salary claims for non-existent research work.
An alternative charge allows an accused person to be found guilty of a different offence from the main charge, even if they are not guilty of the primary crime.
