NIBONG TEBAL, Dec 12 — A lorry driver was arrested for allegedly misappropriating 2,000 litres of subsidised diesel at a petrol station in Jalan Hooi Soo here yesterday.
The Penang director of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry (KPDN), S. Jegan, said a lorry with a modified steel tank, diesel, a motorised pump and hose, all worth about RM75,817, were seized in the 1.30 am operation.
He said enforcement officers had been keeping the three-tonne lorry under watch before intercepting it at the petrol station.
“During the raid, the elderly driver, who also owns the lorry, was in the midst of filling up the tank with diesel. Checks show that an extra metallic tank with a 4,000-litre capacity was installed at the back of the vehicle and covered with canvas sheets.
“We found some 2,000 litres in that tank and the man is believed to have bought the fuel at subsidised prices from several locations in Nibong Tebal and Jawi,” he said in a statement here today.
Preliminary investigations showed that the man was operating alone, making thousands of ringgit monthly by reselling the subsidised diesel to industries, he added.
