Secret's out on court clerk's lavish life

IPOH: A court clerk being investigated for embezzling RM1.5 million has been living it up by driving a flashy car and wearing branded clothes and expensive jewellery.

It is learnt the clerk had suddenly acquired a taste for expensive items and had purchased a new BMW car which she sometimes drove to work.

The clerk has been investigated by the Perak Commercial Crime Investigation Department over the last four months.

The change in her lifestyle did not go unnoticed as colleagues and other staff from the Ipoh lower courts complex wondered how she came into riches.

"It did raise eyebrows but no one knew how she got to buy expensive items including a new car.
"Some colleagues even noticed her using the car which she parked at the court compound," said a source.

The clerk, believed to be 35 years old and married with children, was investigated for siphoning fines paid by offenders by using a loophole in the courts' computerised payment system.

Her activities allegedly began more than two years ago during which time she siphoned off thousands of ringgit every month.

The alleged crime was only detected some time between August and September last year when an auditors' team visited the lower court complex to carry out thir annual audit.

When the team randomly cross-checked several case files -- involving fines imposed by the courts -- against payments registered under the same files in the computerised system, the team found discrepancies in the amount imposed by the courts with the amount stated in the payment system.

It is learnt that the auditors took more than a month to conduct a thorough auditing of the case files at the courts.

Their discovery showed that up to RM1.5 million could not be tallied and this resulted in the lodging of a police report on Oct 2.

Meanwhile, a lawyer who often handles criminal cases, said he believed the computer database could have been altered after official receipts stating the exact amount of fines paid were printed and handed out to the person paying the fines.

"Oftentimes, I accompany my clients to pay fines at the payment counter. The receipt issued is for the amount decided by the court.
"I believe if any hanky-panky was done this would have been done afterwards."

Source: NST