Mustafa execs stole $36,000 worth of cellphones from shop
04 Jun 2010
Source: The Straits Times
TWO former executives of Mustafa were yesterday jailed a year each for stealing $35,995 worth of cellphones from the 24-hour shopping mall.
K.A. Syed Buhari, 41, then an accounts executive, and Indian national Abubackar Tajudeen, 38, then a retail operations executive, hatched a plan which relied on the very nature of their respective jobs to work.
Tajudeen, who supervised the counter selling cellphones, would remove the phones from stock, and then pass information on the models and number of units to Buhari, who amended the stock quantity electronically in the store’s inventory so the stolen phones would not be missed.
After this was done, the pair used accomplices to move the stolen goods out of the store in Syed Alwi Road. This went on between Jan 19 and Feb 9.
Both men have since been fired, but have repaid the loss to the company.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Darren Goh said their modus operandi was uncovered when a security officer noticed one of their accomplices, Seeni Kader Ibrahim, 22, collecting three sealed plastic bags from Tajudeen and leaving without paying. Seeni was detained and the police were called in.
Investigations showed that earlier this year, Buhari, Tajudeen and a man called Kader, who is at large, came up with the plan to steal the cellphones and sell them for a profit.
The stolen phones were to be passed to Kader, who roped in Seeni to collect the stolen phones from Tajudeen.
Seeni, who was supposed to have been paid $20 for each transaction, had collected the stolen phones from Tajudeen about 20 times by the time he was caught. He has since pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property, and a pre-sentencing report on him has been called for.
Buhari and Tajudeen had a second similar charge involving eight phones worth $2,985 taken into consideration.
They could have been jailed up to seven years and fined.
