S'porean man, 32, jailed 2 years for stealing 74 laptops worth S$148,000 & selling them for less than S$11,000 to repay his debts

A 32-year-old Singaporean man was sentenced to two years in jail after he misappropriated 74 Hewlett-Packard (HP) laptops worth S$148,000 to settle his personal debt of around S$15,000.

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Mohamed Loqman bin Mohamed Yusof had been employed as a storeman at Micro 2000 Technology, which was involved in supplying HP laptops and accessories to schools under the Ministry of Education.

He had been employed since June 2024 and drew a monthly salary of about S$2,000.

His role included being the only custodian of the company's warehouse and the HP laptops that were delivered there.

Misappropriated the laptops on three occasions

Investigations revealed that Loqman misappropriated the laptops between March and June 2025.

On the first occasion in March 2025, the logistics provider appointed by HP delivered 10 laptops to the warehouse.

Upon receiving the laptops, Loqman set them aside instead of recording them in the inventory.

When the provider contacted Micron 2000 Technology to ask if the laptops had been received, Loqman falsely claimed that his company had not.

He subsequently sold all 10 laptops on Carousell for S$1,700 to a buyer, under the pretext that the laptops were electronic waste rejected from schools.

The second occasion occurred sometime between March and April 2025, when a school cancelled its order for 44 HP laptops.

Loqman then contacted the same buyer on Carousell and sold the 44 laptops for S$7,840.

The third occasion took place in May 2025 when Loqman noticed that his company held 20 HP laptops within the warehouse as buffer stocks.

He contacted the same buyer and sold all 20 laptops, with payment received as S$1,400 via PayNow and the remaining unknown sum in cash.

In total, Loqman received at least S$10,580 from the sale of the laptops, with court documents noting that he had yet to make any restitution.

How he was caught

On Jun. 10, 2025, the logistics provider approached the finance manager of Loqman's company to inquire about 90 HP laptops that had been reported missing.

According to the provider, the 90 laptops had been delivered on May 29, 2025, but the delivery order was unsigned.

Following the provider's inquiry, Loqman was contacted by one of the company's senior managers about the matter.

Loqman claimed that he had only received 85 laptops from the provider, and that 44 of these laptops had been delivered to a school

However, when the manager checked the inventory, he found only 21 laptops, instead of 41.

When asked about the discrepancy, Loqman said he would check on the whereabouts of the remaining 20 laptops.

Subsequently, on Jun. 11, 2025, the manager conducted an internal investigation after meeting the logistics provider, and found CCTV footage of Loqman loading the laptops into his personal vehicle on Jun. 3, 2026.

When the manager confronted Loqman about the matter, he admitted to his misappropriation of the laptops, and selling them on Carousell to a buyer.

The manager instructed his staff to make a police report.