By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
Discarded receipts cash back on stolen goods…
A WOMAN was caught defrauding a Bunnings store using discarded receipts that she collected in the store’s car park.
Suzanne Marie Wilson, 45, of Pakenham was on bail when she selected $420 worth of items including paint and rat poison from the Cranbourne store’s shelves on 4 April, a court was told.
At the store’s return desk, Wilson – having not paid for the items – then asked for a refund for the items using the thrown-away receipts.
After receiving the cash, Wilson soon returned and was caught shoplifting $43 of decorative petals.
In the car park, police discovered six receipts from Narre Warren and Pakenham Bunnings stores as well as $118 of items without a receipt.
Police also found a washing line and jewellery, which was believed to be stolen, at Wilson’s house.
Senior Constable Joshua Diemar told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Monday that Wilson admitted to searching the car park for receipts.
She told police she intended to use the receipts found in her car to deceive other Bunnings stores, but claimed the items seized at her house had been hers for a long time.
Wilson also made full admissions to theft and unlicensed driving for a petrol drive-off from an Officer service station in August.
She had covered the first and last digits of her car’s number plates with duct tape before driving-off with $7.35 of petrol in the tank.
She also pleaded guilty to stealing $60 of paracetamol and nappies from an Emerald supermarket, and $200 of jewellery from a Target store in Pakenham last year.
Defence lawyer Siva Kandasamy said the single mother-of-three was on prescribed methadone and anti-depressants.
She did not receive child support and her grandchild lives with her.
Most of the shop-lifted goods had been recovered, he said.
Magistrate Julie O’Donnell was concerned that some of the offending was “quite thought-out and deliberate”.
She also took into account Wilson’s prior history, which included a jail term for disqualified driving and theft in 2011.
Wilson was convicted and placed on a 12-month community corrections order.
She was ordered to do 80 hours of unpaid work and to undergo drug and mental health treatment.
