British businessman Sabir Aboobaker arrested for theft in Malawi

A British businessman of Malawian origin Sabir Aboobaker, has been arrested for theft by trick by Criminal Investigations Department (CID) officers of the Malawi Police.

Verified information indicates that it all started on August 7, this year, when Aboobaker approached a vendor in commercial town of Limbe in Blantyre City to sell him all of his goods.

Upon reaching an agreement, the vendors told Aboobaker to visit his business premises to value the goods. The businessman was accompanied by an associate known as Yusuf Bhana.

Bhana being familiar with the goods inspected them alongside the UK based businessman  in order to make an offer. He advised Aboobaker that the goods were “gold” in the local market.

After some negotiations Aboobaker offered the vendor K70 million and the vendor accepted.

The businessman promised to pay the cash the next day after collection but he quickly bought new locks for the containers holding the goods and took the keys with him.

The following day Aboobaker came to the vendors premises with almost 15 of his workers and scooped all the goods in the presence of all the vendors staff.

Days lapsed without receiving any payment from Aboobaker, the vendor made several requests for his payment but to no avail. In this period Aboobaker had already begun selling the goods at less than market value.

When the vendor began to pursue him, the businessman quickly approached the vendor’s brother, requesting him to return the goods as he cannot find a market for them, or the vendor accepts K20 million from the K70 million previously agreed upon.

The vendor was puzzled when presented with such an “unreasonable” offer, and so called for a meeting with Aboobaker to state that he could not accept any returns of the goods because they were sold as a complete package.

Two weeks later  the businessman claimed he dropped off all the goods without any formal handover. When the vendor heard this, he quickly went to inspect the goods and was shocked to see only half had been returned.

This frustrated the vendor and Aboobaker was not able to be reached on telephone, thus the vendor had no option but to report the goods stolen.

Police issued a warrant of arrest saw Aboobaker arrested at his Mudi residence on Saturday 12th November.

He  was then taken to court on November, 15 and later given bail after cooperating with the police to recover the goods he had “stolen by trick” and sold while waiting for the next court appearance.

Nyasa Times understands that part of bail his conditions, the court ordered him to pay K2million bond, surrender his passport as well as report to Blantyre Police Station every Friday.

Aboobaker  is a partner at Magnum foods limited company registered number 03725427 located at 31 London Street, Leicester, LE5 3RH.

He will appear in court again on December, 7 to answer theft charges, if convicted he faces 7 years in prison.

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