A young computer wizard - and fraud - went from job to job, stealing valuable computer hardware from Internet cafes over the past year, said Shanghai police who finally shut down his schemes.

Minhang District police said yesterday that they arrested the young man last week, who allegedly had used his proficient computer skills to get jobs as technology supervisors at two Internet cafes. He then made off with valuable computer hardware overnight.

The suspect, Liu Min, was arrested on Sunday during an interview for another Internet cafe job. But the owner had uncovered his secret and alerted the police.

The Minhang District police yesterday confirmed of the arrest and Liu allegedly confessed to have stolen the central processing units, or CPUs, and crucial hardware from 103 computers at Internet cafes where he had worked in the past.

The first alleged burglary happened last June at an Internet cafe in Minhang District.

The business owner, surnamed Wang, authorized an Internet service company to find an expert to look after his 200 computers.

Liu soon arrived with the service company manager, surnamed Sun, and his demonstrated expertise soon got him the job.

The cafe owner soon put his trust in him and authorized him to take care of all the computers.

However, Liu didn't show up for work on the fourth day of his new job - 80 of the computers were broken and all central processing units were gone from the machines.

Employees remembered their supervisor opening the computers but believed it was normal maintenance.

The cafe owner lost about 80,000 yuan (US$9,899) in the theft.

The Internet service company later compensated part of Wang's loss and police found that Liu had used a bogus identification card for the job.

(Shanghai Daily October 18, 2005)