The court reinforced that separate offences warrant consecutive sentencing, particularly when they arise from distinct transactions, affirming the discretionary powers of judges in such decisions.

Introduction

[1] The Appellant in this case had filed a Notice of Appeal to the High Court against the decision of the Taiping Magistrate's Court which had sentenced him to a 1 year imprisonment term for an offence under s 12(3) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 on 16 January 2024 ("the second charge") in Criminal Case No AB-83D-1601-11/2023 where he pleaded guilty. It was ordered that the 1 year term was to begin upon completion of the Appellant's current imprisonment sentence of 7 years from the date of arrest on 12 April 2023 for an offence under s 307 of the Penal Code in Criminal Case No AA-62-35-04/2023 wherein he had pleaded guilty at 25 the Ipoh Sessions Court ("the first charge") on 20 November 2023.

[2] The charge at the Taiping Magistrate's Court on 2 November 2023 was:

"Bahawa kamu 17 October 2023 jam lebih kurang 1620hrs di Lokap UKP Bahagian Pemeriksaan Penjara Taiping dalam Daerah Larut Matang 30 Selama dalam negeri Perak telah ada dalam milikan kamu 1.01 gram yang mengandungi dadah berbahaya jenis Methamphetamine. Oleh yang demikian kamu telah melakukan kesalahan di bawah s 12(2) Akta Dadah Berbahaya 1952 dan boleh dihukum di bawah s 12(3) Akta yang sama.".

[3] Earlier, on 12 April 2023 he was charged at the Ipoh Sessions Court with the following:

"Pertuduhan: Bahawa kamu pada 11 April 2023 jam lebih kurang 1051 malam bertempat di hadapan Bangunan Angsana Mall, Jalan Raja 10 Ashman Shah, Kampung Kastam Greentown 30450 Ipoh, di dalam Daerah Kinta, di dalam Negeri Perak, didapati mencuba membunuh orang dengan niat sehingga menyebabkan cedera keatas Norfatiha binti Zulkifli, KPT: 950222085556. Oleh itu kamu telah melakukan suatu kesalahan yang boleh dihukum dibawah s 307 Kanun Keseksaan.

Hukuman: Hendaklah dikenakan pemenjaraan yang boleh sampai dua puluh tahun.".

[4] The Appellant appealed only against the order of the learned 20 Magistrate that effectively added another year to his term of imprisonment of 7 years when that 1 year term could have been served concurrently. Therefore, the only issue in the appeal at the High Court on 23 January 2025 was whether the Appellant should be sentenced to a concurrent term of imprisonment, to be served with the 7 years' imprisonment sentence 25 imposed by the Ipoh Sessions Court, in accordance with s 292(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code ( CPC ).

Evaluation And Findings Of The Court

[5] On 23 January 2025, this Court affirmed the decision of the learned Magistrate and there was no subsequent appeal against this Court's order. For ease of reference, I have reproduced some parts of the learned Magistrate's grounds of judgment as follows:

"[13] The second offence is for possession of dangerous drugs of Methamphetamine under s 12(2) of the DDA 1952. The second offence occurred several months later in Taiping Prison ie, 17 October 2023, while the accused was undergoing imprisonment for the first offence.

[14] The facts giving rise to the second offence can be gleaned from the exhibits tendered by the prosecution especially the facts of the case (exhibit P2) and two police reports made by the complainant (exhibits P3(A) and P3(B)) which were admitted by the accused as correct.

[15] The facts can be summarised as follows:

(a) On the evening of 17 October 2023 in Taiping Prison, Sergeant Mohd Azhari bin Edris, a prison officer and the complainant, received the accused from Sergeant Shahril Azmi bin Shaari, the operator of the body scanner machine.

(b) Sergeant Shahril Azmi bin Shaari informed Sergeant Mohd Azhari bin Edris that during the body scanning process, he discovered that the accused was concealing prohibited articles within his body.

(c) Following this, Sergeant Mohd Azhari bin