In a shocking case of theft and conspiracy, a 38-year-old man, Muhammad Fairuz Jasni, was sentenced to 34 months’ imprisonment on April 8, 2024, for his involvement in the theft of 140 laptops meant for the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) staff. The laptops, worth over $68,000, were stolen in collaboration with Fairuz’s accomplice, Mohamed Shahrizal Shaik Mohamed, 31, a former IT contractor with CTC Global, an IT vendor responsible for buying and installing new laptops and other IT equipment for NCCS.
According to The Straits Times, The thefts took place between February and March 2023, and the stolen laptops were sold to a buyer on an e-commerce platform, Carousell. The police recovered 40 out of the 140 laptops that were sold, but it is not clear where they recovered those from.
At the time of the first theft in February 2023, Shahrizal was a desktop support engineer with CTC Global, and Fairuz was his friend. The company bought the laptops at $1,088 each and kept them in an office in NCCS. The room is usually locked, and CTC Global employees have to get a contractor’s pass and a key from a security desk to enter it.
On Feb 16, 2023, Fairuz contacted a user on Carousell who specialized in selling laptops and said he had more than 10 laptops to sell. When the buyer asked the origin of the devices, Fairuz said they were from a company that had a surplus of laptops due to a cancelled project. The next day, Shahrizal and Fairuz stole 10 laptops and sold them to the buyer for $600 each.
On Feb 25, 2023, they stole a second time. Shahrizal went to the office room at noon, packed 25 laptops into two boxes and took them out of the room on a trolley. He then met Fairuz at the NCCS carpark and loaded the boxes into a car. Fairuz sold the laptops to the same buyer for $15,000 in total.
CTC Global fired Shahrizal three days later due to poor work performance, but that did not deter the two men from stealing again. They planned for Fairuz to enter the NCCS building, and Shahrizal told Fairuz where the office room was and how to get the contractor’s pass and key.
On March 25, 2023, a Saturday, Fairuz managed to get a contractor’s pass using a false name and requested the key to the office room. He stole 105 laptops in four trips on that day, and Shahrizal helped to load them onto a van. Fairuz sold them all to the same buyer on the same day for $450 each, or $47,250 in total.
CTC Global staff discovered the missing laptops when they returned to the office the following Monday, and called the police. The police arrested Fairuz and Shahrizal, who still had $4,500 and $16,000 on them, respectively, from the proceeds of the crime.
In addition to the laptop theft, Fairuz admitted to paying a 17-year-old girl $400 for sexual services and asking another 16-year-old girl if she wanted to have sex with him. Both offences took place in 2020. Three other charges relating to theft and one charge of possessing an obscene film were taken into consideration for his sentencing. In total, he was sentenced to 37 months’ jail.
This case highlights the importance of security measures in protecting valuable equipment and the consequences of theft. It also underscores the need for vigilance and strict enforcement of regulations in the handling of sensitive information and equipment. The use of e-commerce platforms to sell stolen goods is also a growing concern, and the police are working to combat this issue through increased surveillance and enforcement efforts.