All companies would want to be able to confidently say that they trust their employees. After all, trust is a vital part of every relationship – be it a personal one or a working one.
However, unfortunately, not everyone can be trusted. Even when you think someone is super trustworthy, they may betray you when you least expect it.
Or keep doing it behind your back for two years until you find out.
Teenage Part-Time Cashier Stole $15,240.59 In Two Years
A 17-year-old teenage part-timer at Decathlon managed to sneakily steal a total of $15,240.59 over the span of two years.
Thinesh Paramasivam, who is now 20 and currently serving the nation, started working at the Decathlon branch in Chai Chee when he was just 17.
He found a flaw in the point-of-sale system, which allowed him to make fake refunds to himself.
Using this trick, he made a total of 88 fake refund transactions between 10 June 2016 and 24 February 2018.
Basically an evil genius.
Created Fake Refunds
Thinesh realised that creating fake refunds would be able to channel credit from the point-of-sale system to his own bank account.
All he had to do in order to enjoy the free money was to indicate in the system that certain items were to be refunded (but they actually weren’t, because no actual customer sought a refund).
This meant that the “refunded” items would never be returned to the store either.
He took S$136.49 during his first fake refund on 10 June 2016, and then waited a few months before his next one of $3.08 on 4 October 2016.
His refund amounts increased over time and grew to as much as $305.60.
Now, I know what you must be thinking. Do surveillance cameras no longer exist? How could he have possibly gotten away with it for two entire years?
Well, Thinesh had his own ways to make sure he wasn’t caught.
He would use a sheet of paper to shield the terminal from the surveillance cameras while he made his fake refunds. At times, he would even just take cash directly from the cashier’s terminal instead of transferring the money to his bank account.
Decathlon Discovered The Missing Money
It took them two years but Decathlon eventually did manage to catch him in February 2018.
Upon finding discrepancies in the inventory system, a store manager lodged a police report stating that two staff members had “stolen money” from the company.
Thinesh pleaded guilty on Wednesday, 18 September, to two charges of misusing the system to perform 88 fake refund transactions over these two years.
The other culprit involved was a 21-year-old cashier, who was Thinesh’s secondary school classmate. Her case will be held at a later date.
He admitted that he told her about the loophole.
Because good things must share, right?
Thinesh’s actions constituted offences under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act, which carry a jail term of up to three years, a fine of up to S$10,000, or both.
The district judge called for a pre-sentencing report, to assess his suitability for a probation sentence, as he was still below 21 years old when he committed the offences.
He remains out on a $5,000 bail and will return to court on 30 October for sentencing.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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