Following the increase, P Tech Resources, which was found guilty of eight charges under the Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations 2014, has to pay RM640,000.
Justice Abu Bakar Katar increased the fine after allowing the prosecution’s cross-appeal against the RM40,000 fine on each count imposed by the sessions court previously.
In his judgment, Abu Bakar said P Tech Resources had been offered the eight optional charges for offences, including air pollution. As such, the prosecution could not rely on evidence related to the company dumping sediment into Sungai Kim Kim during its appeal for the maximum fine.
The company was also charged with failing to carry out periodic monitoring; ensuring that the air pollution control system is supervised by a competent party; as well as failing to equip the premises with equipment to monitor the performance of the air pollution control system.
Abu Bakar also said the prosecution could not rely on the guilty plea by lorry driver N Maridass to link the company with the dumping offence because the facts of the case did not state that the waste was the result of the pyrolysis process of old tyres from P Tech Resources.
“The sessions court judge when sentencing the respondent was not influenced by the mass media’s coverage of the pollution of Sungai Kim Kim.
“Therefore, the prosecution’s action of referring to newspaper excerpts to request the maximum fine cannot be considered because newspaper clippings are just ‘hearsay’,” he said.
However, he said the sessions court judge failed to appreciate the purpose of the Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations 2014.
“If the environment department does not inspect P Tech Resources’ factory, this offence will continue to occur and it will cause severe air pollution to the residents,” he said.
Abu Bakar said the sessions court judge also failed to consider the frequency of air pollution cases in Johor in addition to failing to take notice of the judgment when imposing a fine on the respondent.
Therefore, the High Court allowed the prosecution’s appeal for all the optional charges involving air pollution and increased the fine from RM40,000 to RM80,000 on each count, he said, adding that the respondent company’s appeal against the sentence was dismissed.
Deputy public prosecutors Khairul Azreen Mamat and Nurliyana R Azmi appeared for the prosecution while lawyers N Subramaniam and S Selvantheran represented P Tech Resources.
On Nov 30 last year, the sessions court imposed a maximum fine of RM100,000 on Maridass, for causing pollution by illegally dumping scheduled waste into Sungai Kim Kim in 2019.
Maridass was charged with releasing oil sludge, a scheduled waste listed in the First Schedule of the Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005, into the river.
P Tech Resources, which faced eight charges under the Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations 2014, was fined RM40,000 on each count for the pollution in Pasir Gudang.
The March 2019 incident affected the health of more than 2,000 people and led to the closure of 111 schools in Pasir Gudang.