Singaporean Man Jailed for Cheating Supermarket 26 Times Using Self-Checkout Machine

A 47-year-old Singaporean man was jailed for one month on Thursday, October 9, for one charge of cheating.

This comes after Chang Ka Phin used the self-checkout machine to buy a cheap drink at a Giant supermarket to make it appear as though he had paid for his purchases, but he left with other unpaid items.

When a staff member saw him acting strangely and requested a receipt, he was caught after using this tactic more than 20 times to defraud the supermarket of 143 items, totaling approximately S$534 (US$412).

Chang visited the Giant supermarket at Block 883, Woodlands Street 82, 26 times between January and March of this year, the court was told.

He would go to a self-checkout machine after selecting several items from the shelves.

After scanning the items, he would cancel them. Chang would then scan the barcode for a drink that cost 50 or 70 cents, allowing his purchase of several items to be approved even though he had only paid 50 or 70 cents for a drink.

Chang stuck to this strategy until March 21, when he once more used the supermarket’s self-checkout kiosk.

After noticing Chang’s suspicious behavior, a loss prevention officer waited for him outside.

The officer stopped Chang as he was about to leave and asked to see his receipt. Another employee printed out Chang’s receipt since he failed to produce it. Although Chang’s bag contained a number of other items, the receipt indicated that he had paid for a drink.

His prior cheating offenses were discovered through additional investigations.

Chang has fully apologized. The court received the unrepresented man’s written mitigation plea, which was not read aloud.

When asked if he had anything else to say, he said in court, “I just pray that I won’t go to jail. I really regret what I did.”

The judge informed him that the only question was how long the mandatory jail or custodial sentence for his charge would be.

She acknowledged that there were 26 instances of cheating, but she said that Chang had made amends and that the sum involved was “not particularly significant.”

He might have been fined and imprisoned for up to ten years for cheating. The maximum penalties could have been doubled because his charge was amalgamated, which means it involved multiple instances of the same offense.