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By V.Anbalagan

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 13: A former lawyer on bail since 1988 was today sent to prison for two years after the Court of Appeal found him guilty of cheating the Employees Provident Fund.

K. Pasupathy, 61, was handcuffed by a policeman immediately after Court of Appeal president Datuk Abdul Malek Ahmad handed down the sentence.

On May 31, 1990, the Sessions Court in Johor Baru sentenced him to three years in jail and fined him RM5,000. The decision was upheld by the High Court in 1994.

Today, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s decision but reduced the three- year jail term to two. It maintained the RM5,000 fine.

Pasupathy was convicted of cheating the EPF of RM21,076.05. He abetted housewife S. Janakee to induce the Malayan Banking branch in Johor Baru to deliver the money by deceiving the bank into thinking that she was Agnes Valentine Felix Moris, the person named in the EPF warrant.

Others on the Court of Appeal panel, which delivered the unanimous decision, were Datuk Arifin Zakaria and Tengku Datuk Baharudin Tengku Mahmud.

Tengku Baharudin, who read the judgment, said there was no merit in the appeal.

"Although the accused was charged with abetting, he was the mastermind in committing the crime."

He said there was no miscarriage of justice although there was a 10-year-delay in bringing the appeal to this court.

The defence had failed to create a doubt in the prosecution’s case.

Defence counsel Shahul Hameed Amirudin, in mitigation, appealed to the court that Pasupathy not be given a custodial sentence.

"He has suffered enough because the charge has been hanging over his head for the last 16 years," he said.

Shahul Hameed said Pasupathy, a widower, had to care for his 16-year-old daughter. "He had also been deprived of his legal practice after he was suspended."

Deputy public prosecutor Anna Ng Fui Choo said the offence was serious because it involved the fraudulent withdrawal of EPF money.

She told the court that Pasupathy was already suspended before he was charged with the offence.

"He was suspended following a complaint and not because of his criminal act."

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