Seven years’ jail for former warehouse supervisor who made off with over S$2m of nickel cathode plates

SINGAPORE — Over half a year, a warehouse supervisor stole more than S$2 million worth of nickel cathode plates from his workplace to sell.

Involving three other warehouse employees in his scheme, Ismawi Ismail repeatedly bribed them to help him, while personally covering closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to evade detection.

On Monday (Jan 21), Ismawi was sentenced to seven years’ jail for offences he committed from June to December 2017, when working at a Jurong Port Road warehouse owned by C. Steinweg Warehousing.

The 41-year-old pleaded guilty two weeks ago to one count of criminal breach of trust, six counts of offering gratification and one more of instigating another to offer gratification. Eleven other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

HOW IT BEGAN

The court heard that Ismawi was first approached by someone who introduced himself as Vijay at a canteen near the warehouse. It was not stated who Vijay is.

Ismawi then struck up an arrangement to sell Vijay empty wooden pallets, which are used to hold goods.

In June 2017, Ismawi told his fellow warehouse supervisor, 58-year-old Zainal Supardi, that he had a “lobang” (contact) to sell the pallets to.

He instructed Zainal to help him by covering a CCTV camera at the warehouse, as well as to tell one of the warehouse’s night security guards, Letchumanan L Manickam, to allow lorries to enter and exit the warehouse premises without recording their details on a log sheet or checking their contents when they left.

He also asked Zainal to pay Letchumanan, a 59-year-old Malaysian who worked for APRO Asian Protection, for his help.

Ismawi explained that because Zainal was more senior, he felt Zainal had more authority.

They then kicked their scheme into action. Sometime that month, after a lorry went to the warehouse to pick up some wooden pallets, Ismawi passed Zainal S$100 to give to Letchumanan for allowing its passage.

They pulled it off on three other occasions in or around September, October and November 2017.

Ismawi would disarm the warehouse alarm in the office using the passcode assigned to him. He and Zainal also returned to the warehouse after working hours to block the view of security cameras — either by covering them with cloth, or using a forklift to move a container so it would block them.

Ismawi would then prepare and load the wooden pallets onto unknown lorries on various occasions.

A few days after each occasion, Ismawi would meet Zainal in the warehouse bathroom to give him S$200 for his help. Ismawi also deposited S$800 each time in Letchumanan’s bank account.

Zainal received S$600 in bribes, while Letchumanan received S$2,500 in total.

BEGAN SELLING NICKEL CATHODE PLATES

Subsequently, an associate of Vijay approached Ismawi to ask if he had anything else to sell from the warehouse. Ismawi agreed to sell him nickel cathode plates.

The scheme continued, but Ismawi said he did not tell Zainal and Letchumanan that he was now selling nickel cathode plates.

Sometime in November that year, Ismawi stopped involving Zainal in the arrangement. He also dealt with Letchumanan without Zainal as a middleman.

He instead turned to Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mahamod, a warehouse administrator deployed at another of Steinweg’s warehouses at Jurong Port Road.

Ismawi gave Ali about S$50 every time he helped to move the plates close to the warehouse entrance to prepare them for loading, and S$200 every time he helped to load the lorries.

Before Ali came into the picture, Ismawi used a forklift to move and load the plates onto the lorries himself.

Ismawi admitted to loading between two and 20 bundles of nickel cathode plates onto the lorries on 10 occasions between June and December 2017. Each bundle weighed about 1.5 tonnes.

Altogether, he dishonestly misappropriated about 129 tonnes of plates worth about S$2.09 million. He has not made restitution to Steinweg.

The court cases of Zainal, Letchumanan and Ali are pending.

‘SOPHISTICATED, CAREFULLY ORCHESTRATED’

At the hearing two weeks ago, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Eugene Sng sought seven years and six months’ imprisonment, citing several aggravating factors.

Ismawi had “perpetrated sophisticated offences, replete with carefully orchestrated efforts and steps to avoid detection”, he said. He had also intentionally leveraged Zainal’s authority, and brought Ali into the scheme to help him move the heavy plates.

Defence lawyer Kalidass Murugaiyan argued that Ismawi’s scheme was “rather rudimentary” and not as sophisticated as some other syndicates’.

“There were other willing parties engaged; not all the blame should rest on his shoulders… he agreed to sell small amounts of plates, but this went out of control,” said Mr Kalidass. Ismawi claimed he received no more than S$6,000 for selling the pallets and plates.

In response, DPP Sng said that any offence that “manages to subvert multiple layers of security is hardly rudimentary” and said Ismawi was seeking to shift responsibility to others.

“Even though he pleaded guilty, he is still prevaricating and suggesting that he is not as culpable as he really is,” said Mr Sng.

For each charge of giving gratification or abetting it, Ismawi could have been jailed up to five years, fined up to S$100,000, or both. For criminal breach of trust in the capacity of a servant, he could have been jailed up to 15 years and fined.