Primark Security Guard Abuses Position To Abuse Teenage Shoplifters

A SECURITY guard at a high street store has been convicted of sexually assaulting four teenage girls who had been caught shoplifting.

A court has heard how the Primark security guard, Zia Uddin, 27, raped and sexually assaulted teenage girls whom he pressured into performing indecent acts in return for not telling their parents.

Jurors were told that colleagues noticed that Uddin, who kept condoms in the control room, had not completed shoplifting paperwork properly and had asked for CCTV to be deleted. Graham Partridge, from the Crown Prosecution Service CPS, said: ‘Zia Uddin preyed on young girls in a vulnerable situation. ‘He abused his authority by telling them to perform sexual acts for him on the promise they would then be released without their parents or the police being informed about what they had done.

Mr Partridge added: “During the trial Uddin claimed all the victims were liars and refused to take responsibility for his actions.

His predatory behaviour was eventually stopped when police received a complaint from someone close to one of the victims.

Jurors were told how Uddin’s colleagues became suspicious of his strange behaviour, including his requests for CCTV to be deleted and failure to fill out the paperwork for shoplifting reports.

Uddin, of Manor Park, Newham, was also found to have made phone calls to other girls accused of shoplifting after making a note of their numbers after they were caught.

A spokesman for Primark said: “This has been a horrendous ordeal for the victims and their families and we are truly sorry for what they have suffered. Our thoughts are very much with them.

“The nature of these offences is shocking and distressing.

“Zia Uddin abused the trust that was placed in him by his employer, Brooknight Security, and by us, by taking advantage of his victims, who were young and vulnerable.”

Uddin will be sentenced on November 19 at Kingston Crown Court.