La Shish owners Hussain Zachary Zaineddine, Mostapha Awick caught shoplifting
Calvin Klein underpants, Kathmandu beanies and a Mitchell & Ness retro T-shirt were among the items owners of a popular Sydney restaurant were caught with after taking part in a bizarre shoplifting spree.
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Co-owners of a popular Middle Eastern restaurant in Sydney were caught with hundreds of dollars worth of stolen clothes, a court has heard.
The shoplifting spree of the co-owners of Guildford restaurant La Shish, Mostapha Awick and Hussain Zachary Zaineddine, was all being watched by police.
According to facts tendered to Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, police were watching CCTV cameras in the Myer security office on Pitt St in Sydney’s CBD on July 7.
About 6:30pm they noticed Awick and Zaineddine, who is the restaurant’s head chef, walking around the men’s fashion section continuously looking around, avoiding staff and subtly moving towards clothes racks in the middle of store.
They were seen picking up several items over 20 minutes.
They were seen “submerging themselves within clothes racks” and picking up items before they were empty-handed a short time later, the facts read.
Police followed the men down to the ground level, where they looked at the beauty aisles before leaving and being stopped on George St.
When police took them to a more secluded area to search them, they found the following items in Zaineddine’s backpack, worth $259.92:
One three-pack of Champion sneaker socks, one cream Levis beanie, one black Mitchell & Ness retro T-shirt, and one Mitchell & Ness vintage fade jumper.
But the discovery was not over. Police then found these items in Awick’s Nike tote bag, stolen from Myer and Kathmandu and totalling $524:
Two pairs of Industrie chinos and three pairs of Calvin Klein underwear from Myer, one green Kathmandu beanie, one black Kathmandu beanie, one pair of Kathmandu socks, one pair of Kathmandu gloves.
According to the facts, both men admitted to shoplifting the items, with Zaineddine telling police he thought “it was a stupid idea”.
Police found a magnet and pliers in the pocket of Awick’s pants, which he said he used to remove the tags off the clothes.
The pair’s restaurant was recently featured in a NewsLocal story about Parramatta’s top restaurants and cafes.
“One of the standouts is La Shish, with its sprightly Middle Eastern platters piled with dips, skewers and salads that have had customers returning for almost 20 years,” the story states.
“Co-owner Hussain Zaineddine honed his cooking skills as an apprentice at La Shish 13 years ago and in 2019, he took over the ownership along with Mostapha Awick, who can also be seen greeting guests and fielding their orders”.
The pair’s lawyer Emily Carruthers told the court the men were embarrassed by their actions, had taken full responsibility and shown remorse. She noted neither held prior criminal records.
Magistrate Derek Price took into account the fact they were both hardworking people with good prospects of rehabilitation and pleaded guilty early.
But he said there was a need for a deterrent for these sorts of crimes.
Zaineddine was convicted of shoplifting and sentenced to a six-month conditional release order, while Awick was convicted of shoplifting and being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence and was sentenced to a nine-month conditional release order.
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