Finnish duo sentenced for masterminding grocery receipt scam
Two thirty-year-old men from Finland have been sentenced to four months of suspended imprisonment for defrauding grocery stores using fake deposit receipts.
Finnish police arrested the men who used counterfeit receipts over approximately two months to defraud stores of more than 4,300 Canadian dollars.
According to the newspaper "Iltalehti", the fraudsters exchanged fake receipts for cash dozens of times at supermarkets in the largest shopping centre, Jumbo, in Vantaa, near Helsinki. The maximum value of a single refund exceeded 190 Canadian dollars.
The fake receipts were so well-made that cashiers couldn't detect the fraud. The police described them as "professionally" prepared. Because of this, the men managed to swindle money for an extended period without any obstacles.
Caught red-handed
The fraudsters were caught red-handed. Additional fake receipts were found in their car. Moreover, one of the men had a laptop with installed professional graphic software and a portable receipt roll printer. The court did not believe his claims that the computer didn’t belong to him, especially since it was logged into his unique personal account.
The court sentenced the men to four months’ imprisonment with suspension and required them to cover the losses incurred by merchants. The state also decided to confiscate the computer. The district court's ruling was upheld after an appeal was rejected by a higher court.
The deposit system has been operating in Finland for years
According to the Polish Press Agency, Finland has been using a deposit system for packaging for over 70 years. Initially covering glass bottles, this system was introduced during the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. In the 1980s, it was expanded to include plastic bottles and aluminum cans.
Finland, home to about 5.5 million people, boasts one of the world’s highest recycling rates for packaging: about 95% of returned cans, 90% of plastic bottles, and 87% of glass bottles are reintroduced into circulation.
About 4,000 machines are accepting returnable packaging, primarily in grocery stores. Deposits range from 15 cents for a small can to 55 cents for a large plastic bottle. Upon returning the packaging, the machine prints a receipt that can be presented at the store’s checkout.
