At the core, Apple thefts about greed: judge

UPS supervisor sentenced to four years for stealing, selling $1.3 million in customers’ electronics

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Arrested for stealing and reselling $1.3 million worth of Apple electronics, former United Parcel Service supervisor Orville Beltrano offered a host of explanations for his prolific pilfering.

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Arrested for stealing and reselling $1.3 million worth of Apple electronics, former United Parcel Service supervisor Orville Beltrano offered a host of explanations for his prolific pilfering.

His family was in financial trouble and he wanted to “help out.”

Upset by the growing disparity between the rich and poor, he wanted to provide high-end electronics to people who couldn’t otherwise afford them.

CANADA NEWSWIRE PHOTO
                                Former United Parcel Service supervisor Orville Beltrano was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing and reselling $1.3 million worth of Apple electronics.

CANADA NEWSWIRE PHOTO

Former United Parcel Service supervisor Orville Beltrano was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing and reselling $1.3 million worth of Apple electronics.

He felt pressured to measure up to cultural expectations of success.

The truth, in the end, was much simpler.

“Mr. Beltrano’s unmitigated desire for the finer things in life is evidenced by his offending,” said provincial court Judge Lisa LaBossiere, before sentencing Beltrano earlier this spring to four years in prison. “(His) offending was motivated by greed — pure and simple.”

Beltrano, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of theft over $5,000.

Beltrano worked at UPS for 11 years and at the time of his arrest was a part-time sorting supervisor at the company’s King Edward Street warehouse.

UPS launched an investigation at the warehouse in January 2024 after several packages bound for a communications company in Thunder Bay, Ont., went missing. The bulk of the missing packages contained Apple electronics products.

Over the next week, security cameras set up in the warehouse captured Beltrano on two occasions stealing packages bound for Thunder Bay — which contained a laptop computer and 120 iPhones worth approximately $116,000 — and placing them in his car.

Police arrested Beltrano days later and during a search of his house and car seized a stolen laptop and $9,000 in cash that he admitted was the proceeds from the sale of stolen cellphones. In Beltrano’s bedroom, police found more than $9,000 worth of stolen jewelry.

Further investigation revealed Beltrano stole approximately $1.3 million worth of Apple products bound for Thunder Bay between October 2023 and his arrest in January 2024.

Beltrano sold the items on the online marketplace Kijiji. A police search of Beltrano’s cellphone revealed message threads with multiple people discussing the sale of Apple products.

“In these messages, the accused would indicate what products he had in stock and the prices he wanted,” said an agreed statement of facts provided to court.

Data recovered from Beltrano’s phone showed web searches for money laundering techniques and how to avoid detection from banking authorities.

Beltrano opened four accounts at four different banks to deposit his criminal proceeds, taking care not to deposit too much money at any one time, so as to avoid triggering an investigation by banking authorities. Beltrano spent $550,000 to buy a house, and more to pay off a car loan and credit card debts.

“While the method of theft was fairly simple, his scheme thereafter was more sophisticated,” LaBossiere said. “Not only did Mr. Beltrano operate a business selling the stolen goods, but he made efforts to avoid detection by financial institutions.”

Beltrano and his family immigrated to Canada from the Philippines in 2001.

LaBossiere said Beltrano’s initial claim that his theft spree started because his family was in dire financial straits was clearly false.

“To the contrary, his family is successful,” she said. “There is no evidence before me they were having financial issues.”

Beltrano himself was on a solid financial footing, LaBossiere said, working full time at Canada Revenue Agency in addition to his job at UPS.

Beltrano’s claim he was providing high-end electronics to people who couldn’t afford them was similarly discredited.

“Even if the phones were sold at a discounted price, he personally profited over $900,000 from the sale of the devices he stole,” LaBossiere said.

Since his arrest, Beltrano has undergone counselling and now admits “his actions were motivated primarily for personal gain,” said LaBossiere, who accepted he is “genuinely remorseful.”

Beltrano has been assessed as a low risk to reoffend and has expressed a desire to dedicate himself to volunteering when he is released from custody.

Beltrano has paid nearly $830,000 in restitution, with further restitution still to come through the sale of his car, a 2018 Audi S5.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

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