Police sting found bedroom business dealing in stolen student computers

Omar Tariq Kashmir, 25, was stopped by police just 40 minutes after a satellite navigation system was stolen from a police "capture car" in Woodhouse, Leeds, in May last year.

The stolen sat-nav was found during a search of his car along with a number of other electrical items taken during a house burglary in Woodhouse the same day.

When officers searched his bedroom at the home he shared with his

family in Street Lane, Moortown, Leeds, they recovered 20 laptop computers and other electrical goods.

Officers spent more than three months conducting enquiries that identified the owners of 14 of the computers who confirmed they had been stolen in burglaries in the Woodhouse and Headingley areas of the city.

In interview, Kashmir told officers he bought used laptops from computer fairs and other sources, used his knowledge of computers to overhaul them and then sold them on, often using internet auction sites.

Despite the fact that many of the stolen laptops he was caught with were taken from student homes, one of the methods Kashmir used to sell them was through student notice boards at the University of Leeds.

Kashmir had originally been charged with the theft of the sat-nav and the Woodhouse burglary but was then later charged with 13 offences of handling the stolen laptops taken in burglaries between December 2005 and May 2009.

He pleaded guilty to 11 of those handling charges when he appeared at court in February this year.

Yesterday at Leeds Crown Court, Kashmir was sentenced to 65 weeks in custody, suspended for two years, given a 12-month supervision order and ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid work.

A confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act was made against him for the value of the stolen laptops.

Speaking after the hearing Detective Chief Inspector Andy Williams, crime manager for North West Leeds Division, said: "Kashmir was an enterprising young man who had two jobs, was also studying, and owned several properties but he was clearly motivated by greed and saw an opportunity to profit from the trade in stolen goods without any thought for the victims of those crimes."

He added: "Kashmir had no previous convictions of note and was not on our radar, yet here was someone who was in possession of a large amount of stolen property and who was clearly actively involved in handling stolen goods on a significant scale.

"Our capture cars, capture houses and, most recently, capture bikes are primarily used to catch the burglars and thieves themselves, but this example shows how they also play a really important role in helping us to catch those involved in handling stolen goods."