The High Court here today ordered 15 members and ex-officials of the National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) to immediately return RM1.2 million withdrawn from two banks over the last two days.

Justice Azmel Maamor made the order after hearing in chambers the application by NUBE's lawyers Messrs Daim and Gamany to strike out the interim order which he had granted the plaintiffs o­n Feb 27.

The order dated Feb 28 also stated that a failure to repay the withdrawn funds into the respective accounts of the union, will be in contempt of court.

The union has approximately RM10 million in its accounts.

The 15 include top former union officials - Muhammad Fauzi Shamsuddin, A Prathiba Raj, Mohd Noor Basir and Toh Seng Hock - who have either been suspended or expelled in April last year.

At an emergency press conference convened late afternoon, NUBE general secretary J Solomon said the plaintiffs, armed with the court order, had threatened the two banks to issue cashier's cheques.

"They managed to obtain an ex-parte interim injunction against the union's elected officials, Ambank Bhd and the Malayan Commercial Banks Association (MCBA)," he told reporters at the NUBE headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

The interim order dated Feb 22 named and prohibited the elected officials from handling the union's main accounts.

It also instructed MCBA to collect and remit union subscriptions to Koperasi Bank-Bank Malaysia, the premises where the plaintiffs were operating from.

At the press conference, Solomon claimed the lawyer had misled the High Court in obtaining the interim injunction.

Complaint o­n lawyer

"We are very disappointed with the plaintiffs' lawyer for abetting the individuals despite being an officer of the court.

"Being an officer of the court, the lawyer should have furnished the judge with the full details of the case, which was o­nly done by our lawyers at the hearing in chambers today."

Solomon said they planned to lodge a complaint against the plaintiffs' lawyer with the disciplinary board of the Bar Council soon.

He was also puzzled with the way the monies were removed from the banks.

"The lawyer first served the order o­n BCB at noon o­n Wednesday but did not serve it o­n the principal office-bearers of the NUBE.

"(Then) o­n Feb 26 between 2.45pm and 3.30pm, eight suspended and expelled members walked away with a total sum of almost RM615,000 in cash from the bank."

Solomon said in the BCB incident, a cashier's order was made in the name of Mohd Noor ( far left ) before it was cashed into a joint personal account with Toh ( left ) which was opened o­n the same day, and later the cash was withdrawn.

"In the Ambank case, the cheque was issued in Toh's name and cashed out the same day too."

Solomon said the plaintiffs pulled off a similar stunt yesterday with Ambank between 11am and 5pm, when they walked away with almost RM655,000 in cash.

He also claimed that the lawyer had o­nly attempted to serve the order o­n him and NUBE deputy president Abdul Zaman Abdullah at 3.30pm, but both were not in.

He said NUBE staff had then advised the plaintiffs' lawyer to serve the order o­n the union's lawyers but they "refused to serve it".

Dodgy transaction

"It was o­nly after a personal call from Messrs Daim & Gamany did the plaintiffs' lawyer fax it."

Asked what precautionary measures the union plans to take to prevent a recurrence, he said the priority was to get an endorsement of the elected office-bearers, which has been the bone of contention between two feuding factions in the union for the last few years.

"We are meeting the Human Resources Ministry secretary-general and other top officials o­n Monday, in particular to update them o­n recent developments and also to discuss the endorsement of the director-general of trades union to resolve this for good," said Solomon.

He said the union was also trying to arrange a meeting with Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai o­n the police inaction over numerous reports lodged against then union officials for embezzlement, including a report in 1998 involving RM23 million.

He also said that the police had told them in the latest communication that the matter will be discussed after the Non-Aligned Movement Summit, but nothing has been heard since.

"We hope the meeting with the IGP can provide some answers as to why our police reports have not been investigated.

"It now seems as if the police inaction may have led to the bold actions of the plaintiffs, considering that several among them are implicated in the police reports for embezzlement."

Solomon said the Bukit Aman commercial crimes division was handling the cases.

Meanwhile, the NUBE headquarters has been receiving information about members lodging reports in police stations in Penang, Johor Baru, Ipoh, Kedah, Malacca and Kuala Lumpur.

"We urge all NUBE members to remain calm and avoid listening to rumours," said Solomon.