Muhammad Fariss Mohd Yusoff, 22, was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment and three strokes of the rotan after the Sessions Court Judge, Jagjit Singh Bant Singh, found him guilty of robbing Samantha Knox, 29.

The judge said the victim, who is a doctor, should have been able to enjoy her holidays with fun-filled activities, but the incident had instead caused her to make several trips to the police station and the court.

“The image of the country has been tarnished by your action, which also implies that Malaysia is not safe for tourists.

“After taking into account all factors and arguments, apart from Section 394 of the Penal Code which has been amended to categorise snatch theft as robbery, in the interest of the people, I therefore sentence you to eight years’ jail and three strokes of the rotan,” said the judge who ordered the jail sentence to begin today.

Muhammad Fariss, a cushion maker, only nodded his head when the judge handed down the sentence.

The accused and an accomplice who is still at large robbed Samantha by grabbing her bag and causing the victim to sustain injuries.

He committed the offence in front of Tang Ling clinic in Jalan Cenderasari here at 2.30 pm on June 11, 2015.

His counsel, Esther Tan, applied for a stay of execution pending appeal, on grounds that the accused was the sole breadwinner in his family.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Nurakmal Farhan Aziz, however, protested against the application as the counsel merely presented the grounds and did not show other special arguments for the court to allow her application.

Judge Jagjit Singh allowed stay of execution of the caning sentence, but turned down the stay for jail sentence as supporting the family was not among the special circumstances to enable the court to allow the application.

A total of four prosecution witnesses and one defence witness were called to testify in the trial which began in June 2015.

-BERNAMA