Cashier explains coupon con at Whitchurch Co-op store
A supermarket cashier told a jury of a scanning con she said she and other employees were involved in.
Swipe and win coupons, giving money off the total cost and reduction coupons for specific goods, were kept back by some of the staff of the Co-op store in Whitchurch and used repeatedly to reduce the cost of their own bills, a court heard.
One £10 coupon was even laminated so it could continue to be used, the hearing was told.
Another Co-op worker, Michelle Carson, 43, of Wrexham Road, Whitchurch, who worked at the store, denies conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of her position between January and December 2016.
Giving evidence at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday , cashier Yasmin Moore said she had pleaded guilty to conspiracy but had not yet been sentenced. She explained that if customers did not take their coupons, or left before they came out of the till, they would be kept by staff, or in a bag by the till, and then used to reduce their own shopping bill. For example, on one occasion her own shopping, worth £25.22, was paid for by scanning a £2 voucher 12 times. She paid just £1.22 herself.
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Moore, who worked at the shop for seven years, told the court she had never seen or known of Carson using coupons for her own shopping. But she said that, at the beginning of 2016, Carson would put through shopping for Moore and use the coupons.
“She never scanned anything off her own goods but she would scan mine with coupons,” Moore said.
“There came a time when she did not want to do it, when it started to get out of control.
“She told us if we wanted shopping we would have to do it ourselves or get someone else to do it.”
Seven women have already pleaded guilty to the charge. It is estimated the store was defrauded of between £30,000 and £40,000.
Mr Kevin Jones, prosecuting told the jury at Shrewsbury Crown Court that a store of its size would normally scan about £1,000 worth of coupons.
The hearing continues.
