Kota Kinabalu: A 31-year-old man who broke into the building of University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) with intention to commit cable theft, was jailed nine months and fined RM2,500.
Failure to pay the fine would get his jail sentence added another four months.
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Magistrate Marilyn Kelvin meted out the sentence to Mohd Soffrie Amiluddin who pleaded guilty to the charge against him, Thursday.
He had trespassed the Cooling System Building of Faculty of Engineering at 5.30am on Jan 31, this year, at UMS, near here.
According to the charge, he trespassed the building belonged to UMS with intention to commit an act which against the law.
The offence under Section 448 of the Penal Code carries a jail term of up to three years, or fine, or both, on conviction.
Mohd Soffrie was ordered to serve the jail sentence from the date of hi is arrest.
The court heard that on Dec 26, 2025, it was discovered that three FPT chiller units and several types of cables had been cut by an unknown individual, causing the chiller system to fail and disrupting operations in the area.
The cables involved were copper tape earthing (10 metres), 165mm cable (220 metres), and 70mm cable (5 metres).
A report was made for further police action.
Following the police report, the complainant in the case together with several UMS Auxiliary Police had arrested a man later identified as Mohd Shoffrie, ar the area.
The team had also found one metal cutting tool, one pair of rubber gloves, and one pair of shoes together with Mohd Shoffrie and all the items had surrendered to police.
Mohd Shoffrie admitted that he entered the building without any permission with intention to committing cable theft.
Inspector Yusdi Basri appeared for the prosecution.
