© Supermarket: three cashiers stripped Intermarché of filled shopping carts – Source: iStock
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Since a few months, our purchasing power is gray. In question ? An overall price increase. Food, energy, transport… Everything costs more. Also, households are constantly on the lookout deals and promotions. To limit their expenses and do the best business, some are turning to discount and destocking. But others use more dishonest ways to preserve their budget. Thus, lately, cashiers have taken part in fraud, with some customers that they knew. But the management of the supermarket ended up discovering the pot of roses.
A well-established modus operandi
The case took place in a supermarket located in Loos-en-Gohelle, in Pas-de-Calais. Three women employees of the Intermarché brand had become accustomed toreduce the receipt of their loved ones when they came to do their shopping. How ? Quite simply by avoiding scanning certain articles.
The maneuver may have gone unnoticed between from all the noises of the store. Between two beeps, the cashiers might therefore hide the barcode of certain products. Complicit customers only paid for part of their purchases. In this way, supermarket workers were able to allow friends or relatives to fly, in complete discretion.
More their little tricks ended up coming out in the open, last October. Indeed, one of the hostess had a tendency to go and open her till when her relatives had to pay for their items. A small detail that ended up putting a flea in the ear of supermarket managers. They also checked by comparing the contents of the shopping carts with the receipts. Very quickly, they noticed that customers were going take away products without fixing them.
The supermarket lost several thousand euros because of this fraud
The managers of this Intermarché store first dismissed the three cashiers, for serious misconduct. But they also called the police. The investigators then took the time to view CCTV cameras. They also compared the receipts with the shopping carts. Finally, the investigations carried out revealed a massive fraud.
People were able to pass shopping carts, worth more than 1,000 euros, while paying only 100 euros at the supermarket checkout. To cover their tracks, the three employees covered for each other. Thus, they passed the friends and relatives of their colleagues involved in the scam.
In the end, moretwenty customers profited from this fraudulent practice. These thefts, perpetrated between 2021 and 2022, concerned food items, but also hygiene products. And even video games or household appliances. Supermarket management recently spoke up, expressing amazement. “We were not aware that it was going to take on such a magnitude. »
For their part, the three cashiers will have to appear in court. The court will have to decide on their guilt, for aggravated theft. The clients who participated in these shenanigans will go before the judge to concealment.
Source : Capital
