A salesman employed by a factory producing pure gold pleaded not guilty at the Magistrates’ Court today to 35 counts of criminal breach of trust involving jewellery worth more than RM500,000.
Teng Wei Kiang, 33, denied all charges after they were read before Magistrate Arun Noval Dass under Section 408 of the Penal Code.
If convicted, the accused faces up to 14 years’ imprisonment, whipping and a possible fine.
The father-of-one was accused of misappropriating company property for personal use, involving gold necklaces, bracelets and rings estimated to be worth around RM524,000.
The offences were allegedly committed at several pawn shops in the district and in Kluang between October 20 last year and April 14 this year.
Investigations revealed that the accused had been entrusted by the company to sell newly produced gold items to authorised buyers. However, suspicions were raised after discrepancies were detected involving the sales proceeds and the weight of the gold.
Further checks allegedly found that the gold had not been sold as instructed, but instead pawned at several outlets to obtain money for gambling activities.
Police investigations also found that a total of 1.4 kilogrammes of gold entrusted to the accused had allegedly been pawned, causing losses exceeding RM700,000 based on current gold prices.
The prosecution was handled by Inspector Aizuddin Sulaiman, while the accused was represented by lawyer Moganesya Nagendran.
The court allowed bail at RM65,000 for all charges and imposed additional conditions requiring the accused to report to a nearby police station once a month, refrain from contacting prosecution witnesses and surrender his passport immediately.
The case has been fixed for mention on June 25 for document submission.
