By David Kavanagh | posted on July 26, 2019
TWO women sentenced for stealing groceries from Woolworths in the Albany Magistrates Court over the last two weeks committed the offences by going through self-service checkouts.
One of the women pleaded guilty to stealing $120 worth of groceries from the shop at the Dog Rock Shopping Centre on April 10 and told police she “forgot to scan” the items in question.
Prosecuting Sergeant Peter Yaswuk told the court at the July 11 hearing that the woman “systematically scanned” only half of the items in her trolley, with the act being caught on security
cameras.
The woman’s defence counsel Graeme Payne said his client had been struggling with grief, self-esteem and mental health issues at the time of the offending and supplied Magistrate Richard Bayly a list of positive references.
The second woman fronted Magistrate Martin Flynn in Albany Magistrates Court last Thursday.
The 39-year-old was found to have stolen a total of $50 worth of groceries from Woolworths on two separate occasions in October last year.
Prosecuting Sergeant Alan Dean said “while the accused scanned a majority of the shopping items” in her cart at the self-service checkout, she did not scan everything.
The act was also captured on store security cameras.
Duty counsel Wendy Stewart told the court her client “was having financial difficulties” at the time of the offence.
She added her client had just been divorced from her partner, was raising a five-year-old son unsupported, was on Centrelink and suffered from stress and anxiety.
Magistrate Flynn told the woman he accepted that she was in “financially desperate straits” and that her “judgement was impaired” when she stole the items.
Both women were handed suspended fines and granted spent convictions.
A Woolworths spokesperson told the Weekender they did not have figures about how often thefts via self-service checkouts occur or how much the company loses to self-service theft each
year.
“From time to time, we see customers scan the wrong items, so we’ve turned on weigh scales to help shoppers validate the items are going through,” the spokesperson said.
