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Claims that he did it to Distract Himself From Feeling Isolated During the COVID-19 Lockdown
Former END. warehouse worker Wakas Hussain stole over £100K worth of products from the high-end retailer over the course of six weeks, per Sunderland Echo.
Hussain was tasked with packing orders at the warehouse located in Washington, England. In court, Hussain claimed that he had no intention to sell the stolen property and did it to distract himself from feeling isolated during the COVID-19 lockdown.
END. warehouse management became suspicious in February 2022 when they noticed a delivery address in South Shields, which had been returned with no delivery note enclosed. This led management to further investigate and discover that between December 2020 and February 2021, there had been 29 deliveries to this same address — none of which were registered within the END. company system.
As management began to review the orders, they noticed that the reference numbers for the orders had been manually inputted, rather than automatically generated by the system.
Using shift patterns, management analyzed the schedules to determine three potential suspects, with Hussain being one of them.
As END. continued its investigation, management discovered another order that had been placed in a similar process. They caught Hussain in the act of handing the order to a delivery driver for the same address, containing three pairs of sneakers worth £700 (approx. $850 USD).
Police were informed about the suspicious activity, which led them to discover that the address belonged to Hussain’s then-partner’s mother, who knew nothing about the scam.
Hussain told the mother that he needed to have the packages delivered there, as he couldn’t have them sent to his own address because he was an employee.
The wholesale value of the stolen items were worth £40,268 (approx. $48,982 USD), with the total potential retail value of the items worth £105,333 (approx. $128,127 USD).
All of the items were found at Hussain’s home and seized by the police.
One can’t underestimate the level of emotional distress when it’s found a previously trusted member of staff has abused this trust and caused damage to the business.
Official statement by END.
In the end, Hussain plead guilty to theft from his employer and was sentenced to 12 months, suspended for two years with a community order, and 200 hours of unpaid work.
Sophie Allinson, Hussain’s lawyer, said that her client is remorseful.
“He was feeling isolated at the time during the COVID lockdown and there were family health issues,” said Allinson. “He was trying to distract himself with high-end goods he couldn’t afford on his own salary. He appears to have had no forward thinking about what he might do when he took them, which is evidenced by the fact they were all at his property. There’s no evidence he planned to sell them on.”
“It’s entirely pointless offending and he has ruined his good character for nothing – he has made no gain or profit,” continued Allinson. “His family are utterly appalled by what he has done.”
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