IPOH: Three Road Transport Department (RTD) assistant enforcement officers were fined RM5,000 each by the Sessions Court here today after they pleaded guilty to accepting bribes of RM20,000.

This was as inducement not to take action against vehicles without travel permission during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period last year.

Judge Ainul Shahrin Mohamad also ordered Mohamad Fadzli Robaini, 32, Mohd Khairumin Sahdan, 35, and Sazali Rani, 53, to serve a month in jail each if they failed to pay the fines. They paid the fines.

The three personnel attached to the Jelapang Perak Highway Patrol Unit were jointly charged with receiving RM20,000 in cash from Lee Kong Wong, 29, so that no legal action would be taken against Cheong Chee Wei, 41, for the offence of transporting a load of liquor without permission during the MCO.

The offence was committed by the side of the North-South Expressway (PLUS) in the Kinta district here between 10 am and 1.10 pm on June 6, last year. The charge under Section 165 of the Penal Code and read together with Section 34 of the same Act, provides for a jail term of up to two years or a fine, or both.

Deputy public prosecutor Maziyah Mansor prosecuted while lawyer Muhaimin Aris Wang represented the three accused.

-- BERNAMA