Security boss caught shoplifting by own officers

Thursday, 18 April 2013

by Charles Thomson

A PRIMARK security boss has admitted shoplifting women's clothes after he was caught by his own officers.
Elly Wasukria, 41, of Pound Lane, Grays, was head of security at the Primark store at Lakeside shopping centre.
He pleaded guilty to stealing women's clothes worth £67 in a hearing at Basildon Magistrates Court on Thursday, April 18.
Prosecution lawyer Sophie Ewulo told the court that security workers had begun reviewing CCTV and conducting stop-and-searches after becoming suspicious that stock was going missing.
She said suspicion fell on Wasukria after he was seen on CCTV leaving with what fellow employees believed could be stolen goods on three prior occasions.
On March 9, 2013, fellow security officers confronted the Ugandan security boss, who has lived in the UK for 13 years, as he left the store.
They found women's clothes with the tags still attached in his rucksack.
Wasukria insisted that he had taken the stock because he believed it was damaged and could not be sold, but the the store's deputy manager told police they were saleable goods.
Police never recovered the items Wasukria was suspected of stealing on prior occasions.
Ms Ewulo agreed to drop a second count of theft in light of Wasukria's guilty plea on the first charge.
The court heard that Wasukria had since been given another security job.
District Judge John Woollard commented: “How on earth can he be working for another security company in the light of these events? I suspect that won't last long when the CRB check comes through.”
He told Wasukria: “Your job was to protect the stock in that shop and you in fact went in to steal it.”
He suggested that he would like to have jailed the shoplifter.
He said: “In times gone by you would be going straight to prison today. Sentencing guidelines suggest I should not take that course of action.”
He instead sentenced Wasukria to a 12-month community order and ordered him to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
Wasukria was also ordered to pay a statutory surcharge of £60 and a further £80 towards prosecution costs.

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