A 47-year-old man, Chang Ka Phin, has been sentenced to one month in jail for repeatedly cheating a Giant supermarket. He used the self-checkout machines to avoid paying for a large number of items.
Chang’s scam happened a total of 26 times between January and March this year at the Giant supermarket in Woodlands. He would:
- Grab multiple items from the shelves.
- Go to the self-checkout machine and scan the items.
- Cancel the items he had just scanned.
- Scan a single, cheap drink (worth either 50 cents or 70 cents).
- Pay for just the drink, which would let him leave with all the other items he hadn’t paid for.
Using this method, he stole a total of 143 items with a combined value of about S$534.
Getting Caught
The scam finally ended on March 21. A loss prevention officer at the store noticed Chang acting suspiciously and waited for him outside. When Chang was about to leave, the officer stopped him and asked for his receipt. When Chang couldn’t produce one, another staff member printed it out. The receipt showed he had only paid for a single drink, but he had several other items in his bag.
After he was caught, further investigations uncovered the 25 other times he had cheated the supermarket.
In court, Chang, who didn’t have a lawyer, told the judge he was very sorry for what he had done. “I just pray that I won’t go to jail. I really regret what I did,” he said. The judge, however, told him that a jail sentence was mandatory for his charge and that the only thing to decide was how long it would be.
The judge noted that while he had cheated the store many times, the amount of money involved was “not particularly significant” and that Chang had already paid back everything he owed.
For cheating, Chang could have faced up to 10 years in jail and a fine. Because his charge was combined to include all 26 instances, the maximum penalties could have been doubled.
