He walked off with £500,000 in parts – and walks free

A forklift driver who stole nearly £500,000 worth of car parts from Ford’s Dagenham assembly plant has been spared jail.

Father of three Mohammed Naveed, 39, was found by police with more than 11,000 engine parts stashed away at his home in Ilford.

They were piled up in bags under his stairs and stacked in his garden shed.

Most of them were set to be used in Jaguar and Land Rovers, where their engines are assembled.

Naveed used his night shift at the plant to pilfer the 478 acre site for engine parts, worth around £460,000.

He was caught following a chance inspection of his vehicle by police, where they found £3,738 of cash stowed by the passenger seat, prompting a home search.

Among the parts recovered were 515 fuel injectors, 94 turbo chargers and 21 crank shafts, all costing thousands of pounds each.

Naveed claimed in court he bought the parts in good faith from a white man van called ‘Dave’ but a jury took just 20 minutes to convict him of theft at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Ronnie Bergenthal, prosecuting, said: ‘This point is not the case with drugs, where it is the street value that is taken into consideration.

‘It’s the retail value that is the loss to Ford.

‘What they could have achieved is near enough to £460,000 and the financial retail value is the cost that is the appropriate one to consider.’

Police needed three minibuses to remove the parts from his house to the station.

‘Naveed stole car parts belonging to Ford assembly plant in Dagenham where he worked at the time,’ said the prosecutor.

‘The theft from the work place occurred while he was employed as a contractor for them.

‘This defendant stole those car parts over a period of time of almost two years.

‘He worked as a forklift driver at the Ford plant.

‘When police searched his address they found large quantities of brand new car parts underneath the stairs.

‘They went out into the garden and they discovered there was even more car parts.

‘Over 11,000 different pieces of car parts were found in total, 99% of them brand new.

‘They were wrapped in bags and bin bags.

‘He was detained at the police station and placed in a cell and while he was in the cell he requested the attendance of a police officer to speak to.

‘He told the officer “I just want you know I didn’t burgle anywhere, I have three kids and I needed the money”.’

‘The car parts that were recovered came from the Ford motor company and their total retail value came to just shy of £460,000 worth of parts.

‘He said he thought they were broken or “seconds”, but those car parts were all new and they had just been manufactured.

‘Over 11,000 car parts were seized and it took three minibus journeys to and from Romford police station to move them out of his house.

‘The main bulk of them were designed for the Jaguar Land Rover engines, which Ford makes.

‘Ford have an identification system and they can actually identify a batch made on the date of its manufacture, and the exact minute that the part has been manufactured.

‘Many of the parts were made at a time during the night shift when it just so happens that this defendant is also doing the night shift.

‘He also had in his house nine bags of bubblewrap and 318 pairs of work gloves.

‘Essentially we say this defendant has stolen these car parts and the amount of cash that was found in his car came from his criminal activity of going on and selling them.’

Nicholas Maggs, defending, argued that Ford’s loss was minimal and said: ‘The cost to Ford is £50,000 give or take.

‘Their lost profit is not something that court takes account of when determining guidelines.

‘The huge markup in price on the items should not be considered.

‘The court has to look at loss, not lost profit.’

Judge Anna Brown decided to sentence Naveed according to the parts’ factory cost of around £50,000 – not their retail value of £469,000.

She said: ‘The difference between the buy-in value and the markup value is clearly significant.

‘I’m persuaded to take the cost value which is still of course a significant amount of £50,000.

‘I’m just persuaded in this case that a suspended sentence is an appropriate one.’

Naveed, of Staines Road, Ilford, was convicted of theft and cleared of possession of criminal property.

He denied the charges.
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