High Court judge K Muniandy said Shamsul Bahri Musa, 55, ought to have been acquitted without his defence being called.

In a written judgment released on Friday, Muniandy said the offence of criminal breach of trust was not disclosed and the charges did not conform to the Criminal Procedure Code, rendering them illegal and the trial a nullity.

“A miscarriage of justice has occasioned which has to be corrected by this court,” he said, in allowing Shamsul’s appeal against his conviction and sentence. The prosecution had cross-appealed on the ground that the two-year jail sentence imposed by the sessions court was inadequate.

Shamsul was accused of committing the offences between January 2007 and September 2010 at Menara Mutiara Bangsar.

The judge said the prosecution had failed to prove a case beyond reasonable doubt against the accused on all the charges – which were all flawed.

He said the trial judge “completely overlooked the stark fact that the course of events did not occur in the manner she had evaluated the evidence of the defence”.

She also fundamentally misdirected herself when she erred in not scrutinising the charges and considering them carefully in terms of the law about criminal breach of trust.

“It is glaring that the trial judge did not pay heed to the presumption of innocence which operates in favour of the accused,” he said.

Hasnal Rezua Merican and Muzzammil Merican appeared for Shamsul while deputy public prosecutor Zaileen Nadia Zubir represented the prosecution.

Hasnal said the prosecution has filed an appeal.