Kylie Milner of Ipswich, Australia, was caught in a scheme where she stole over $4500 from supermarkets in her area. She was able to do this with the aid of photocopies and self-scanners.
She photocopied the barcodes of 65 cents and 72-cent packs of noodles and printed them onto sticky labels. She would then go to the supermarket and simply cover the labels with her cheaper versions and scan the items like normal.
She could sneak through items like coffee machines, protein powders, and expensive meats. She was finally caught after managers had noticed how nervous she was at the self-check-outs. She eventually admitted to successfully doing this 31 times.
Milner was convicted and sent to jail for 31 counts of fraud for nine months, but the sentence was suspended for three years. Her lawyer defended that she was bankrupt, but the court ordered her to pay $1,545 to Coles and $2,070 to Woolworths.
Businesses are cracking down on self-check-out theft due to the increased problems they have been having. Police said that customers could “swipe everything as carrots” because they do not have to interact with cashiers.
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