PUTRAJAYA, Sept 24 — A 75-year-old former lawyer was sentenced to two years in prison by the Court of Appeal today for committing criminal breach of trust (CBT) involving RM477,000 in house sale proceeds.
A three-member panel led by Justice Datuk Azman Abdullah, with Justices Datuk Azmi Ariffin and Datuk Meor Hashimi Abdul Hamid, unanimously upheld the conviction of Ab Gani Che Man.
However, the court reduced his original five-year sentence, imposed by the Sessions Court, to two years.
A warrant of committal was issued for Gani to begin serving his sentence immediately. He had previously been released on RM25,000 bail with one surety pending the outcome of his appeal.
In dismissing the appeal against his conviction, Justice Azman said the High Court judge had not erred in affirming the decision.
The appellant (Gani) was the sole individual authorised to sign cheques from the firm’s account, and the cheque issued to the complainant could not be honoured.
“After considering the appellant’s mitigation, his age, health, and the fact that the offence involved a client’s account as well as public interest, we reduced the sentence from five years to two years to begin from today,” he said.
On December 13, 2022, the Sessions Court convicted the accused of CBT and sentenced him to five years in jail. The High Court upheld the conviction and sentence on July 11 last year.
According to the charge sheet, Gani was entrusted with control over the balance of the house sale proceeds but failed to hand over the RM477,000 to the complainant Mohd Rusydi Razali. The offence occurred on April 6, 2016, at his former law firm in Desa Pandan, Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur.
The facts of the case disclosed that the accused was engaged by the complainant to handle the sale and purchase of a property, including the transfer of ownership.
The ownership transfer was completed on February 15, 2016, and the property was registered under the new buyers.
When Rusydi approached Gani for the balance of the payment that was released by the bank to the firm’s client account, the appellant issued a cheque for RM477,000 on April 7, 2016.
However, the cheque was dishonoured due to insufficient funds.
In his defence, the accused claimed he was not entrusted with the sale proceeds, as the funds were deposited into the firm’s client account after he had been suspended from legal practice at that material time.
Gani also said he was no longer involved in the firm’s management following his removal from the roll of advocates and solicitors. The senior citizen formerly served as a police officer, before later opening a law firm.
In today’s proceeding, lawyer Datuk Azmi Talib represented Gani, while Deputy Public Prosecutor Eyu Ghim Siang appeared for the prosecution.
