Telus Claims Two Surrey Residents Defrauded Company Out of $705,000 Worth of iPhones

Telus is suing two Surrey residents after they allegedly posed as representatives of a long-time client and were able to defraud the company out of $704,000 worth of iPhones.

According to a report from Vancouver is Awesome, Barinder Singh Sidhu and Karan Singh Multan are being accused of conspiring to illegally obtain iPhones and sell them for personal gain. Telus filed a notice of civil claim in the B.C. Supreme Court on November 28.

“According to the claim, Sidhu is a former employee of non-party Olympia Transportation Ltd., a current and past client of Telus,” reads the report. “On January 16, 2018, company representatives met with Sidhu and Multani at a Surrey warehouse on 128 Street and were under the impression that the warehouse was part of Olympia’s operations. Sidhu and Multani, however, allegedly impersonated an Olympia director and the company’s operations manager and told Telus representatives they ‘were seeking to place a large order for smartphones for use in Olympia’s business.'”

Sidhu and Multani reportedly ordered 450 iPhone 8 models and SIM cards from Telus, which was then changed to an order of 450 iPhone X models. The phones were delivered and invoiced in May of this year. Overall, the phones themselves are worth $704,250, without discounts, claims the lawsuit.

“Olympia was a long-standing and well-established client of Telus,” the claim states. “As a result of the existing relationship between Telus and Olympia, Telus did not require a down payment or other security for the purchase price of the initial order from Olympia.”



“In the weeks that followed delivery, Sidhu and Multani repeatedly contacted the Telus representatives in an effort to obtain further discounts on the wrongfully obtained devices, which delayed attempts at the collection on the invoice and discovery of the fraud,” the claim continues.

Telus attempted to collect on the invoice in July of this year, according to the claim, but Olympia denied ever having placed such as order. In August, Telus representatives were sent to the Olympia Burnaby facility where they met with actual Olympia employees, those who Sidhu and Multani impersonated.

Telus, with the help of Olympia, was then able to successfully identify the two impersonators and began taking steps to recover the devices, many of which had already been sold online.

“Some of the wrongfully obtained devices have been activated on the Telus Network,” the claim states. “One wrongfully obtained device was activated by a Telus employee who purchased the device through Facebook Marketplace on or about June 17, 2018. The Telus employee sought a refund from the Facebook Marketplace seller when the device was blacklisted and ceased to function. At that time, the seller advised the Telus employee that the blacklisted devices would be sold in India.”

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