To the extent we participate in it, couponing is a uniquely American phenomenon. So it stands to reason that coupon fraud is, too. But sometimes the appeal of cutting corners to get something for nothing proves too tempting to resist for fraudsters in other parts of the world as well.
And it’s easier to get away with it – for a while, at least – when it’s an inside job.
The land of kilts, haggis and a mythical monster is now confronting the more prosaic problem of coupon fraud, as a former store manager in Scotland has been sentenced to two and a half years behind bars for scamming his employer out of nearly $120,000.
51-year-old Gary Ridgewell of Doune, a town about midway between the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, was sentenced last week, a month after pleading guilty to using coupon fraud to help fund what his attorney said was a lifelong gambling habit.
Ridgewell was the manager of Halfords, an auto supply store, when his scheme was reportedly discovered. Local media report that, over a five-year period, he admitted to inflating the value of coupons that shoppers had used, and pocketing the difference. When there wasn’t enough cash in the register, he reportedly admitted to transferring money from the store’s safe.
The scam worked for a few years at one store in Dumbarton, after which Ridgewell was transferred to another branch in Perth, and it worked there, too – for a while. In 2018, management launched an investigation and discovered some curious discrepancies in transactions and in the amount of cash being kept in the stores’ safes. “The investigator found that coupons had resulted in increases in safe balances at Dumbarton, which stopped when the accused left,” Scotland’s Daily Record newspaper quotes prosecutors as saying. “The balance began to rise in Perth after the accused had been transferred.”
A subsequent review of surveillance footage “captured the accused pocketing cash from the till and then recording a transaction.”
Ridgewell was suspended shortly after the scam was discovered back in 2018. It took until last month for him to enter a guilty plea in court. His attorney reportedly told the court that he had struggled with a gambling addiction since he was 13 and was desperate to fund his habit. Apparently unmoved, the judge pointed out that his case represented “a serious charge and a gross breach of trust with a large sum of money involved.”
Ridgewell will now be serving 30 months in prison, and looking for a way to pay restitution. Initially accused of stealing the equivalent of nearly a quarter million dollars, a plea deal reduced that amount by nearly half. So now he owes $120,000 to his former employer, which he has yet to begin paying off.
For what it’s worth, his attorney said he has joined Gamblers Anonymous and has registered with a site that prevents him from having an account with any gambling company. So after he serves his time, he’ll need to come up with a six-figure sum by honest effort. Coupon fraud, as it turns out, was one gamble that definitely didn’t pay off.
Image source: Halfords
