KOTA KINABALU: A 33-year-old woman was fined a total RM10,000 for allowing a Korean and a Filipino who did not have any document, to remain in a reflexology centre.
Sessions Court Judge Azreena Aziz handed the sentence to Juley Kuming who pleaded guilty to the charge against her on Wednesday.
The court ordered Juley to pay RM5,000 or three months’ jail for each illegal immigrant she hired.
She was found permitting the 22-year-old Korean and 24-year-old Filipino, both males, to stay at the Lemongrass Reflexology in Asia City, near here at 8.10pm on Aug 14 in 2019.
The offence under Section 55E(1) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 carries a jail term of up to a year, or a fine of RM30,000, or both, for each illegal immigrant involved.
During mitigation, Juley who was not represented, asked for a light sentence.
However, Prosecuting Officer Muhd Shafiq Amin from the Immigration Department urged the court to hand down a deterrent sentence against Juley.
The court heard that the immigration team went to the premises, conducted documentation on the illegal immigrants who were at the premises and found that they did not have documents.
Further investigation revealed that Juley had allowed the illegal immigrant to remain there.
In another case, five men were jailed five months and ordered given a stroke of the cane each for entering the State illegally.
They were Sabri Albin, Aris Nadjalin, Amran Utuh Awang, Rian Hussin and Rahim Abdul Rahman who pleaded guilty to entering the State without any document.
They were arrested between Jan 5 and Jan 21 this year after failing to produce their documents during an operation conducted by the police at the city area.
The court ordered the foreigners to serve the jail sentence from the date of their arrest.
