Facts of the Case

Claimant commenced employment as Officer Grade 12 in BBMB Trustee Berhad with effect from 16.2.1990 on a monthly salary of RM1,050.00. At the time of his dismissal vide the Respondent letter dated 26.9.2005 which took effect immediately, Claimant was holding the position as Operation Manager in Bumiputra-Commerce Trustee Berhad (hereinafter referred to as "BCT") with his last drawn salary of RM6,723.00 per month.

The events which led to the Claimant's dismissal were that on 29.7.2005 (Friday), Pelaburan Harta Tanah Berhad (hereinafter referred to as "PHNB") which was a client of Bumiputra-Commerce Trustee Berhad (BCT), had initiated a sale of 125,000 units of Maybank shares amounting to RM1,433,865.62; the sale of the 125,000 units of Maybank shares were from CDS Account 202 001 037156288 into CDS Account 098 001 037201860 (Maybank Securities). On the following working day on 1.8.2005 (Monday), on or about 12.00 noon, PHNB forwarded to BCT a Notice of Sales, Daily Summary of Sale Contract Note and a Contract Note, all of which were received by Cik Fauziah Usop, a clerical staff of the Claimant's Operations Department. Meanwhile Maybank Securities also faxed to BCT a CDS Settlement-Transfer Request of the same sale of the Maybank shares with the clear instruction to transfer the said shares to their CDS Account before 12.30pm on 2.8.2005. Upon receipt of the aforesaid documents from PHNB, Fauziah Usop had forwarded the same to the Claimant for him to sign an acknowledgement receipt of the Contract Note and at the same time, she had also asked the Claimant what she was supposed to do with the documents received. Claimant, however, did not respond to Fauziah Usop's query. On 2.8.2005 at about 3.30 pm Maybank Securities Sdn. Bhd. called BCT to say that the Maybank shares had not been transferred to its CDS Account. Nor Hayati binti Husin who was then the Legal & Compliance Officer at the Corporate Trust Department when being informed about this, immediately instructed Fauziah Usop to prepare the instruction letter to Bumiputra-Commerce Nominees (Tempatan) Sdn. Bhd. (hereinafter referred to as "BCN") to effect the transfer. At this point in time, Claimant called BCN to inform about the impending transfer to be made. The letter of instruction from BCT apparently back-dated to 29.7.2005 prepared by Fauziah Usop and signed by the Claimant was then faxed to BCN at 3.45 pm. on 2.8.2005. However, transfer could not be effected as the name of the fund in the said letter of instruction was wrongly typed as Pacific Dana Aman instead of Amanah Harta Tanah PNB2. Correction was subsequently made by Fauziah Usop; Claimant signed the amended letter of instruction before it was faxed to BCN again at 3.49 pm. By the time the officer from BCN, Norijah Kamar had received this 2nd letter, it was just 2 minutes before 4.00 pm. When it was ready to execute the transfer by 4.01 pm., the system that was linked to Bursa Malaysia Depository was automatically disabled as the automatic disabling time or cut off time was 4.00 pm. As a consequence of this, the broker had to invoke the buy-in process on the following day on 3.8.2005 and BCT was made to absorb the contra loss of RM144,459.38. The Respondent contended that the Claimant had failed to ensure the customer's instruction was attended to and acted upon immediately and also had failed to ensure his clerical staff, Fauziah Usop prepared the instruction letter to transfer the 125,000 units of Maybank shares well before the cut off time of 4.00 pm on 2.8.2005 that Claimant was well aware of.

Claimant was suspended vide the Respondent's notice dated 10.8.2005 and a domestic inquiry (D.I.) was conducted against him on 7.9.2005 on the following charge:-

"That you had on 1st August 2005 and 2nd August 2005 failed to instruct Bumiputra-Commerce Nominees (Tempatan) Sdn. Bhd. to transfer 125,000 units Maybank shares being an investment of Pelaburan Harta Tanah Nasional Berhad (PHTNB)