A light-fingered security guard caught selling more than £21,000 of stolen items on eBay has avoided a prison sentence.
Yassine Mbarki, 50, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted stealing and listing thousands of pounds worth of equipment for sale that he had taken from EIS Waste Services.
Mbarki – who was employed by a third-party security company and carried out the scam for almost a year and a half – used his eBay account to sell computer software, machinery and offshore electrical equipment.
The total sum of the items he had listed for sale online was £21,599.
Mbarki had scores of eBay listings
Fiscal depute Georgia Laird told the court that on January 29 this year a witness employed by EIS Waste Services, based at the Waste Recycling Centre on Wellington Road in Nigg, received a call from a regular customer.
It was established that the customer had purchased a disk-type hard drive, which he found already had his personal information stored on the device.
Inquiries were carried out and it was discovered that the item had been sold by Mbarki through his eBay account – which was found to have 170 live listings.
These included computer hard drives, lithium batteries and other specialist offshore equipment.
Many of the items Mbarki had listed for sale were things not easily accessible to the public, the court was told.
The live listings on eBay were estimated to have a total value of £12,829.
The police were contacted and they seized relevant documentation relating to the incident.
A search warrant was then executed at Mbarki’s home, where officers seized 294 items.
The total value of these items was not able to be established, but the total value of items Mbarki had sold and had listed for sale was £21,599.
A further 20 items were later discovered that Mbarki had not yet listed for sale.
In the dock, Mbarki, of Jute Street, Aberdeen, admitted one charge of theft of mechanical and electrical goods between August 1 2022 and January 30 2024.
‘Embarrassed and ashamed’
Referring to the total value attributed to the listed items, defence solicitor Stuart Beveridge said “just because something is listed on eBay doesn’t mean it will sell”.
He added that many of the items sold by Mbarki were returned after being purchased.
Mr Beveridge said Mr Mbarki found the items left in bins outside and he thought they could be taken.
“He accepts that he did not have permission and he knows that he should not have been selling them,” the solicitor added.
“Mr Mbarki is embarrassed and ashamed to find himself here and he does appreciate this is a serious matter given the value of the items.”
The solicitor added that Mbarki had lost his job and his security guard licence as a result of his underhanded behaviour.
“He will most likely struggle to obtain work after this,” Mr Beveridge added.
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff David Nicolson made Mbarki subject to a community payback order and ordered him to carry out 75 hours of unpaid work over nine months.
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