Jail for security guards who stole £200k of goods UPS installed secret cameras to catch staff
MORE than £200,000 worth of iPhones and goods were stolen from a UPS distribution centre near Tamworth by its own security guards.
The crooked staff were so brazen that they drove out with whole boxes of phones and then bragged on social media about how easy it was.
But the net finally closed after covert security cameras captured two guards, Mohammed Miah and Jaleel Khan, shifting consignments of iPhones ready for them to be taken.
Miah, 43, of Tottenham Crescent, Kingstanding, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to two charges of theft.
Khan, 30, of Corporation Street, Walsall, was jailed for two years and ten months after he admitted one theft charge.
Soyfur Rahman, 38, of Addersley Gardens, Saltley, also admitted a single theft charge and was jailed for 21 months.
And Mohammed Aamar, 28, of Swindon Road, Edgbaston, was jailed for 13 months after he pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property from his crooked colleagues.
Prosecutor Russell Pyne said all four men were working as security guards at the UPS distribution centre at the Birch Coppice Business Park in Dordon, near Tamworth, which handles 200,000 packages a day.
Because of losses from the centre in 2015, covert security cameras were installed in key places.
CCTV showed Miah and Khan on one weekend in August 2015 moving boxes in an area they had no reason to go to.
UPS security specialist Ellis Grocock said five boxes, each containing 70 iPhones, destined for Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse, were stolen that weekend.
Asked what conclusion he could draw from a single phone from a box being found at a defendant’s home, he replied: “That the whole box would have been taken.”
He explained that if a single phone had been taken from a box, it would be spotted straight away at UPS or by the customer that it was missing – but the loss of a whole box would not come to light so quickly.
Both Miah and Rahman had entered their pleas on the basis that they had not stolen as much as the prosecution alleged.
During a ‘trial of issue’ the court heard that when Miah was arrested, 29 iPhones were found in a van on his drive and another two in his home – of which 27 could be proved to have come from one of six stolen packages. He also had a large quantity of other items, including clothing and cosmetics, at his home, in the van and in a storage unit he rented.
A total of 535 stolen items worth £3,753 were found at Khan’s home, and goods worth £7,476 at Rahman’s home.
All three men had been selling the stolen phones and other items on eBay and other sale sites, and Aamar received stolen goods worth about £1,300 from them which he then sold.
Miah claimed he had stolen only 57 phones during the course of his employment.
But Judge Anthony Potter said he was satisfied he had had access to ‘an ever-increasing amount’ of iPhones – boasting on social media about having 150 at one stage.
“He was taking full advantage of his position to abuse it,” commented the judge, who said that other messages indicated Miah having a 60-40 split with Khan.
“I am quite satisfied Mr Miah was the leader, and I am satisfied he took at least 50 per cent of each consignment. I find he was responsible for stealing a total of 555 phones worth £189,055.”
He rejected Rahman’s contention that he had stolen ten individual phones, finding that he had at least 20 phones from one consignment.