However, 10 years down the road, he is in trouble with the police when his lorries turned out to be “stolen vehicles”, reported the New Straits Times today.

The 60-year-old Felda settler bought the lorries from a middleman who claimed that the lorries were on the verge of being repossessed by a bank.

Although the vehicles had no documents, Zaidi threw caution to the wind and paid RM40,000 for both lorries as he was planning to use them only within the plantation.

On March 7, a group of policemen came to his house in the wee hours and wanted to inspect the vehicles. Shocked and confused, they told him that the lorries had been reported stolen.

Zaidi soon realised that he was not alone as several of his friends, who also bought second-hand lorries from the same middleman, were detained after the chassis numbers of their vehicles were found to have been tampered with.

He said an old friend introduced him to buy the lorries, and since he needed the vehicles, he did not hesitate to pay the money.

“I admit that my lackadaisical attitude has landed me in trouble as I should have been more alert when the middleman sold me the vehicles at a low price without documents,” he said.

He said many settlers also fell victim to the fraudster and bought the lorries, with some even having valid road tax.

He said all they wanted were lorries to transport the fruits, and since they never drove the lorries out to the main road, they did not bother about documents.

The settlers were angry after learning that they had fallen victim to a syndicate, and were sweet-talked into buying stolen lorries for RM15,000 to RM25,000 each.

“None of us expected to land in trouble or end up earning a living with stolen vehicles,” Zaidi said.

He said the police then took statements from him and other buyers.

Bukit Mendi Village Security and Development Committee chairman Dzulkarnain Abd Wahab said the incident was a wake-up call for the settlers to deal only with genuine second-hand vehicle dealers.

He ticked off the settlers, saying they should have been aware of such incidents as some of them had jobs in government agencies.