Justice K Muniandy allowed Shamsubahrin’s appeal to set aside the sessions court’s decision on Sept 20, 2023, to sentence him to three years in prison.

While the lower court ruled that the contract did not exist, Muniandy said this contradicted witness testimonies stating that the agreement was in place but was subsequently cancelled by KLCC, resulting in the complainant not securing the contract.

The judge said the cancellation of the contract was beyond Shamsubahrin’s control and that the sessions court failed to take this into account before concluding that the accused had defrauded the complainant.

“Therefore, the mens rea element required to establish the accused’s criminal conduct was not stated in the charge. The sessions court judge made no finding on whether the mens rea was proven by the prosecution,” he said.

Muniandy said the complainant’s company failed to take the necessary steps to comply with the registration procedure and to submit the complete documents, adding that the RM300,000 paid was a commission to the accused if the project was secured.

Deputy public prosecutor Izalina Abdullah prosecuted while counsel Zulkifli Awang acted for Shamsubahrin.

The trial began on Nov 2, 2022, with five prosecution witnesses and three defence witnesses, including the accused, called to testify.

In April 2021, Shamsubahrin was charged with deceiving Izham Ramli into believing he could secure the KLCC security contract within 30 days, which caused Izham to transfer RM300,000 to the RHB Bank account of Messrs Muhammad Zahir,.

The offence was allegedly committed at a restaurant in KLCC in early October 2019. The charge was framed under Section 420 of the Penal Code, which provides for up to 20 years in prison, whipping and a fine, if convicted.