Unless you eat lots of fruits, you probably won’t know that fresh fruits are rather expensive.
In fact, someone just stole about $12,000 worth of fruits in less than two weeks.
Here’s what happened.
Man Stole Almost $12,000 Worth of Fruits from Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre
A 33-year-old warehouse assistant stole fruits worth $11,926 from Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre between 29 April and 10 May this year.
He pleaded guilty to one count of theft on Friday morning (December 20).
He has worked in a fruit supplier where his duties included managing the cold storage inventory and selling fruits to customers. The stolen items included dragon fruits, blueberries, avocados, and strawberries, which were kept in a password-protected cold storage room.
The court heard that he lost all his money gambling at Resorts World Sentosa casino in April. This led him to devise a plan to steal fruits from his company and resell them to recoup his gambling losses.
On 28 April, he contacted a sales assistant at a fruit shop whom he knew previously. He offered to sell her excess fruits at 30% below market price.
After the sales assistant agreed, the accused instructed the sales assistant to collect the goods at 8 PM, well after the company’s closing time of 2 PM, to avoid detection by other staff members.
The next day, the sales assistant drove her delivery truck to the accused’s workplace. The accused entered the cold storage room, loaded the stolen fruits onto her truck, and charged her between $400 and $500.
He then repeated this scheme seven more times. During these transactions, he told the sales assistant to stay in her truck to avoid arousing suspicion from other workers at Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre.
Investigations revealed that the total value of stolen fruits amounted to $11,926. =
The prosecution highlighted that the case involved a significant sum and that the accused had betrayed his employer’s trust. They also noted that he had not made any restitution.
In his mitigation, he told the court that he committed the crime on impulse and asked for leniency.
It’s unknown if the sales assistant knew that the fruits were stolen.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
Read Also:
Advertisements