Property agent Yunos Taib, 51,had among his clients several Indonesian customs and police officers.

One of them, identified only as Edwin, recruited him for a car-theft syndicate in 2004.

Last November, Yunos was jailed 51/2 years for concealing stolen property, while his accomplices were jailed between nine months and five years after being caught later that year.

The court documents did not state when he had been arrested.

Yunos pleaded guilty to five charges.

He now wants to appeal the length of the sentence. His application will be heard today.

Court papers revealed interesting details about how the car-theft syndicate operated. (See graphic above.) Its tactics included passing the cars off as bedding sets.

EXPORTED

Yunos had hired another man, Zulkiffli Mohamad Yunus, to help him.

Zulkiffli was tasked with collecting car keys from the drivers and find out where they have been parked.

He roped in another two men, Mohamad Sadikin Mohamad Sabtu and Mohamad Safar Samat, both Singaporeans, to help load the stolen cars into containers stationed in Changi North and Tampines St 45.

The export documents and transportation would then be arranged for the cars to be sent to Batam.

The syndicate initially managed to evade customs officers. But unknown to them, the police were watching.

On 27 Oct, 2004, Sadikin and Safar were arrested in Changi North while they were loading one of the cars into containers. Zulkiffli was nabbed two days later.

Yunos, however, boldly continued with the scam.

In November 2004, he hired a woman, Farzilah Mohamed Shaik, 35, a Singaporean, to do the paperwork for the export of a Toyota Harrier to Batam.

In turn, Farzilah hired another man, Daeng Masri Saren, 31, to help her. Court papers did not state Masri's nationality.

Farzilah and Masri were paid $700 and $150 respectively.

On 30 Nov 2004, Yunos handed over the Toyota Harrier to them at a carpark in Bedok.

Masri then drove off while Farzilah left in Yunos' car. Yunos, Farzilah and Masri were subsequently arrested by the police, and the Toyota Harrier, worth $116,000, was seized.

The vehicle had been reported stolen in Malaysia just the day before.

In his mitigation, Yunos said he was a first offender and has to care for his 11-year-old son from his previous marriage.

But District Judge Wong Choon Ning felt a deterrent sentence was necessary.

For concealing stolen property, he could have been jailed five years and fined on each charge.

1 Stolen cars in M'sia are driven into S'pore
2 They are parked in various locations
3 Smugglers meet S'pore contact and tell him where car is parked
4 Cars are collected by S'poreans paid to lead each car into container
5 Licence plates removed to avoid suspicion
6 Vehicles falsely declared as bedding sets and exported to Indonesia

CAR STOLEN EVERY TWO HOURS IN MALAYSIA

The police said that 7,300 cars were stolen from January to August last year.

Only three in 10 stolen cars are recovered because by the time a report is made they would have been driven out of the country.

This is not the first case of stolen Malaysian cars being exported to other countries via Singapore.

Vehicles bound for Batam are believed to be transported by barge via Singapore.

Malaysia's criminal investigation department has said that vehicle thieves seem to favour makes like Toyota, Honda and Perodua. A Toyota or Honda is sold for RM30,000 ($13,193), while a Perodua Kelisa or Kancil is sold for RM1,000 ($440) in Batam.

Assistant superintendent Zulkifli Jasmin Hashim of Malaysia's criminal investigation department admitted in earlier media reports that it is getting harder to nab these thieves, as they are acting faster and smoother than before.

In April 2003, Singapore police busted a syndicate dealing in stolen cars from Malaysia.

Six people were arrested and the 11cars handed back to Malaysian police. They had been stored in a warehouse in Tuas.