MUAR: A plant nursery worker was fined RM4,300 at the magistrate's court here today after pleading guilty to three charges of causing hurt and criminal intimidation last month.
Tan Hock Meng, 40, pleaded guilty immediately after the court interpreter read out the charges — two counts of voluntarily causing hurt under Section 323 of the Penal Code and one of criminal intimidation under Section 506 of the same — before magistrate Fatin Dalilah Khalid.
According to the first two charges, Tan had hurt one Gan Kee Chai, 58, on Sept 67 and 27, at 2.30pm at Taman Cempaka Selatan, here.
Under Section 323, he could have been sentenced to up to a year in jail, fined RM2,000, or both, on each count.
Instead, Fatin Dalilah imposed a fine of RM900 for each, in default two months' jail.
In the third charge, Tan was accused of criminal intimidation by threatening the same victim with a knife and a fork and saying "I want to chop off your hand and gouge out your eyes".
Under Section 506 of the Penal Code, he could have been sentenced to up to seven years in prison, fined, or both.
Fatin Dalilah, however, issued a fine of RM2,500, in default seven months' jail.
Earlier, before sentencing, prosecuting officer Assistant Superintendent Mohammad Zuwairi Md Noor had asked the court to impose the full sentence allowed for by the law as the crimes to which Tan had admitted were serious.
However, defence counsel Nor Hafizah Abdullah, of the National Legal Aid Foundation, pleaded for a lenient sentence as Tan was responsible for two children and aged parents.