MSE News: Sainsbury's shopper arrested for coupon fraud

MrsBartolozzi · 26 September 2011 at 12:10PM

I'm another person confused by what it was she did that got her into so much trouble, and that there must be more to this.

Joining up to sites with fake names and emails for the vouchers may considered by some to be morally wrong but I don't see how this could be flagged up as fraudulent at store level as each voucher/coupon is individual and unique.
She must have been using copied coupons in the same transaction, which if you are going to risk copying the uniquely coded ones is just plain stupid anyway.
It's not the same as making lots of say the Campbell's coupon which is the same for everyone and comes as a PDF with NO instructions saying please print only one coupon.

pollyannapink · 26 September 2011 at 12:11PM

She probably used her Nectar card at the same time........Sainsburys and other supermarkets have systems watching shoppers activites all the time.
And rightly so........it is called fraud.

holly_hobby · 26 September 2011 at 12:18PM

Or, there was a prob with the scanning of a coupon, the assistant came over and noted that the individual had numerous copies of the same coupon (which should be personal i.e couponstar one), but all with the same barcode just with a diff name on the top (i.e she had doctored the original to show diff names, but had left the barcode as was ?).

Blimey .... I've turned into Miss Marple .. !!

shjo558 · 26 September 2011 at 12:30PM

lookinforabargain wrote: »

Would like to hear the whole story on this one. I know with the Unilever VIP on facebook that when you went to print, the print box popped up and you could put in how many you wanted, but they would all come out with the same barcodes so maybe that's what she did and it was traced back to her?

Who knows really, but as MT says it's just making life difficult for the rest of us who use them honestly and are happy to save a few quid here and there

From reading what appears to be half the story, I suspect this is what has happened too.

Kev27 · 26 September 2011 at 12:31PM

Sounds to me as if the woman has been arrested through her own stupidity! probably going out of sainsburys and putting the shopping in her car then going straight back in for more etc.... Silly cow!! :rotfl:

wakeupalarm · 26 September 2011 at 12:38PM

How are you supposed to know at what point its pushing the boundaries and at what point its breaking the law? Take the recent Honey Shreddies offer, I've used the coupon twice buying two packs of honey shreddies, There are several people who post of buying 30-40 packs, does that mean we've broken the law? Should I hand myself into the nearest police station?

I_luv_cats · 26 September 2011 at 12:38PM

myalphabetgirls wrote: »

The article also says she used different names - well haven't we all done that too. Especially more recently I insert "personalised" for first name and "coupon" for second.

.

Please don't include me in your " well haven't we all done that too " assumptions because I would never dream of redeeming a coupon in a fictitious name - never ever !!!

I believe I shouldn't abuse the coupon system or want my collar felt either!!!

MSE is getting bad with some posters advocating abusing (stealing) coupons, dtd and other abuses.

JimmyTheWig · 26 September 2011 at 1:01PM

wakeupalarm wrote: »

How are you supposed to know at what point its pushing the boundaries and at what point its breaking the law? Take the recent Honey Shreddies offer, I've used the coupon twice buying two packs of honey shreddies, There are several people who post of buying 30-40 packs, does that mean we've broken the law? Should I hand myself into the nearest police station?

What would have happened if when you used the second coupon you said to the cashier "I used one of these last week but printed off another one. Is it ok to use it today?"?
I think if they would have said "no" and you knew that and that is the reason why you didn't tell them then that is certainly being dishonest. I guess it is fraud.
If you think they would have said "yes" and the reason you didn't ask was because you knew what you were doing was allowed then I don't see a problem with it.

Credit-Crunched · 26 September 2011 at 1:01PM

"Joining up to sites with fake names and emails for the vouchers may considered by some to be morally wrong but I don't see how this could be flagged up as fraudulent at store level as each voucher/coupon is individual and unique"

errr you serious? Morally wrong?

Fraud defintion = Obtaining goods or services by deception

I think that changing your name, e-mail address is deception dont you.

This site has its benefits and the coupons money off are brilliant, hwoever the hard core minority (who seem to have more time than most on their hands) ruin it for all, look at Tesco DTD the whole campaign ended due to the sad folk creating spreadsheets to abuse the system!

mustrum_ridcully · 26 September 2011 at 1:16PM

Quoting the MSE article...

She printed a Unilever coupon several times, using different names on each occasion, which got her £150 off her shopping at the supermarket in Wrexham.

It's probably the combination of the two that caused her to get her wrists slapped.

Two things here: the £150 and that the vouchers tend to have a cash value (say 0.001p) so by providing false information to get the vouchers (deceiving Unilever) she could have basically broken Section 16 of the 1968 Theft Act: "Obtaining a Pecuniary Advantage by Deception. - A person who by any deception dishonestly obtains for himself or another any pecuniary* advantage shall on conviction on indictment, be liable to a imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years"

For those who don't know most self checkouts have screens where a shop assistant can monitor what's going on at the tills. Then there are also the assistants who just hand around who might have noticed something funny going one.

I should add that I'm not a lawyer and this is just my gut feeling as to what could have happened here.

* Of, relating to, or consisting of money.

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MSE News: Sainsbury's shopper arrested for coupon fraud

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