Man Who Stole From MH370 Passenger Receives 4 Years and Caning

Malaysian mechanic pleaded guilty to stealing money from a Chinese citizen aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

A mechanic who plead guilty to stealing over $2,000 from the bank account of a passenger aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 will spend the next four years in prison and receive three cane strokes for his crimes. The Daily Mail reports 34-year-old Basheer Ahmad Maula Sahul Hameed changed his plea after testimony began in his criminal trial.

According to the charges, Basheer worked in concert with his wife, Nur Shila Kanan, who was an employee of HSBC Bank. Together, Basheer and Nur stole over $2,000 from the account of Chinese citizen Tian Jun Wei, a passenger who was aboard the missing flight. Prosecutors claim Basheer utilized an HSBC ATM in Malaysia to steal the money from the flyer’s account in 2014.

Additionally, Nur faced charges of stealing money from accounts using forged documents and cheating bank supervisors over a period of nearly two months last year. Nur will be sentenced separately, after missing her sentencing date over an alleged illness.

During the sentencing, Malayisan judge Norsharidah Awang said the couple’s actions were “…despicable and inhumane,” according to The Daily Mail. Norsharidah went on to say their actions besmirched the reputation of banks in the nation.

CNN reports Malaysian officials officially pronounced MH370 as an aviation accident in January, presuming all of the passengers as deceased. The move allowed families of those aboard to begin receiving compensation for their losses. NBC News reports that the search for MH370 is still ongoing, with the search expanding to a 46,000 square mile area of the Indian Ocean.

[Photo: Reuters]