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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Hannah Neale

Men make off with 12k e-cigarettes after 'paying' with paper

Majad Khan Khan and Amro Aseeri leave court on Wednesday. Picture by Hannah Neale

A group of men made off with 12,000 vapes after handing the victim a bag of paper instead of an agreed $63,000 in cash.

Majad Khan Khan and Amro Aseeri faced the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Aseeri, 24, and Khan, 23, pleaded guilty to one count each of dishonestly obtaining property by deception.

Co-offenders Joshua Alan Rhodes and Albion Osmani previously pleaded guilty to their part in the crime.

Agreed facts for Aseeri and Khan, tendered to the court on Wednesday, state that in April 2021, Rhodes made enquiries with the victim and other sellers on Facebook Marketplace about purchasing a large volume of e-cigarettes.

Rhodes agreed to purchase 12,000 IGET e-cigarettes from the victim for $63,600.

The next month the four offenders made off with the e-cigarettes without paying.

Instead, Rhodes handed the victim a bag of paper.

The bag contained several envelopes roughly the size of Australian currency with rubber bands wrapped around them, and with numbers written on the front purportedly to indicate the amount of money each envelope contained, the facts state.

When a friend of the victim opened the envelopes, he saw they contained paper instead of money.

The friend then yelled: "There's no money. Catch him!"

Aseeri, Rhodes and Osmani then escaped in a small blue getaway car.

Khan had already left the scene of the crime, driving a black Fiat loaded with the stolen vapes.

Khan and Aseeri remain on bail, and were excused from attending their next court date if legally represented.

Their case is next set to go before a registrar on October 12.

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