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A Singapore permanent resident was fined RM9,000 by the Kulai Magistrates' Court today, 14 January, after pleading guilty to displaying a vehicle registration number that did not belong to his car
According to Bernama, Long Sa Kow, 64, entered his guilty plea after the charge was read to him before Magistrate R Salini.
He was also ordered to serve nine months' jail in default of payment.
Long was charged with committing the offence at a petrol station in Kulai, Johor Bahru, at 10.30pm on 2 January, an incident that was circulated on social media
A video showed him refuelling his Singapore-registered Volkswagen Jetta with subsidised RON95 petrol while parts of the car's licence plate were covered with black tape to make it resemble a Malaysian registration number.
He was charged under Section 108(3)(e) of the Road Transport Act 1987, which carries a maximum fine of RM20,000, imprisonment of up to five years, or both upon conviction.
National Legal Aid Foundation lawyer Sharmaine Fairuz Zulkifli pleaded for a lenient sentence for the accused, saying Long was the sole breadwinner of his family and did not have a fixed income
She added that he has three children, two of whom are still in school, and that this was his first offence.
However, deputy public prosecutor S Thiviya urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence that would warn others against committing the same offence.
