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A MELBOURNE man last week pleaded guilty to
stealing 750kg of ‘A’ grade vanilla beans from East Sepik province.
Naaman Mohan, who lives in Melbourne, Victoria, pleaded guilty before
the Magistrates Court last Wednesday and sentencing has been scheduled
for Dec 19.
Mohan had used a false identity, fake bank reference, falsified business
registration and other false information to obtain 750kg of vanilla
beans from Sonja Ramoi of Ramoi Vanilla Limited by deception.
Mohan committed the theft last year at Melbourne airport while he was
under the carriage of DHL Express, following which Victorian police led
by senior constable detective Paul Ziebell of the Sunshine Criminal
Investigation Unit conducted an investigation resulting in Mohan’s
arrest, charging and the court appearance.
Apart from the charge of obtaining the vanilla beans by deception laid
on Mohan, his five other charges included burglary (broke into hire car
company Eurocar in Melbourne to remove records that he hired a truck to
move the stolen vanilla beans from Melbourne airport); theft (stole
computers, hard drives and boxes of records from Eurocar in order to
remove any trace of hiring a three-tonne truck to move the vanilla beans
from DHL at Melbourne airport); going equipped to steal (was equipped
with locksmith tools to pick the lock to gain entrance into Eurocar
premises to remove evidence that he hired the truck); possess proceeds
of crime and possession of prohibited weapons.
The last two charges were laid against Mohan after police obtained a
search warrant last year and raided the house where he resided in
Melbourne.
A surety of A$100,000 (about K250,000) being the title of a Melbourne
house owned by Mohan’s mother is being held by the Victorian Court in
order to ensure that Mohan does not abscond.
Sonja Ramoi from Ramoi Vanilla Limited was in Melbourne at the time of
the guilty plea as she had been the main witness in a two-day trial.
She told PNG media via email: “We will await sentencing of Mohan on Dec
19 before we request a summary and then seek redress from DHL in
Melbourne for their negligence in releasing the vanilla beans to someone
with a false identity.”
 
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