KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has denied ever instructing his former private secretary to use the Yayasan Akalbudi charity foundation funds amounting to RM107,509.55 to pay for his private vehicles' insurance policies and road tax.

The former Deputy Prime Ministry said it was his "incompetent and negligent" former secretary, Mazlina Mazlan, who had done it without his knowledge, instruction or directive.

"I would have immediately stopped her if I had known she was going to do this," he said when testifying in his own defence over 47 charges of committing criminal breach of trust (CBT), corruption and money laundering involving the foundation's funds.

Zahid said charges that he had abused the foundation's money to pay for the insurance policies and road tax of his private vehicles were absurd as he had never done any such thing. 

"These charges are absolutely not true as all the payments were made by Mazlina using the foundation's cheques which had been pre signed by me.

"Even the ink of the signatures on the cheques and other details like the payee's name is different," he said, adding the pre signed cheques were meant to be used to pay contractors for work that was being done at the foundation at that time.

Otherwise, he said the cheques were meant to be used for immediate payments that came up whenever he was outstation or overseas.

"I want to make it clear I had absolutely no idea she used these cheques to pay for the insurance policies and road tax," he said.

The court had previously heard that three Yayasan Akalbudi cheques had been used to pay for 20 privately owned vehicles mostly with the registration plate number 38 belonging to Zahid and his wife.

The vehicles included motorcycles makes like Harley-Davidson, Ducati Hypermotard and Ducati Diavel, BMW R1200 GS, BMW R1200RT and BMW C600, Kawasaki KLX250, and Honda C100, and car models like two Lexus LX, three Toyota Vellfire, a BMW 320i (A), a Mercedes Benz CLS 350, a Toyota Land Cruiser, a Honda Odyssey, Chrysler Jeep Wrangler, and an Audi Q7s.

Allianz General Insurance agent Ahmad Izhan Abdul Rashid, who was called as the 14th prosecution witness, had previously testified that he had been given three Yayasan Akalbudi cheques - dated Jan 22, 2015 for RM24,980.55, Apr 15, 2015 for RM43,645 and Sept 22, 2015 for RM38,884, to pay for the insurance policies and road tax of the vehicles.

Izhan said he had personally gone to Zahid's house at Country Heights in Kajang to handover the insurance policies and road tax of the vehicles concerned.

The prosecution's case against Zahid is that he had allegedly misappropriated more than RM13.1 million of his family-run charity foundation for his own credit card payments, motor insurance policies and road tax and other purposes.

It was alleged that Zahid, who is represented by Hisyam Teh Poh Teik and Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, misappropriated the monies for his own personal use and not for the foundation.

The trial before High Court Judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah continues.