A COUPLE paid for more than $500 in groceries in six instalments at a supermarket’s self-service checkout in an attempt to circumvent a stolen bank card’s $100 tap-and-go limit.
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Under the payPass and payWave system, people can tap a card but after $100 a pin must be entered.
Because the two cards used to buy the groceries on April 7 were stolen, Chantell Carr and the man who helped her load the groceries didn’t know the pin so with the independence of the self-service checkout she repeatedly tapped the card until she had $532.10 worth of items.
Although technology helped Carr purchase the groceries, it also led to her getting caught after the transactions on the cards she used were tracked and she was identified on CCTV.
On Monday, Carr, 21, of Lane Place, was sentenced in Orange Local Court for three counts of obtaining property by deception.
Magistrate David Day gave her a 12-month good behaviour bond for using one of the stolen cards to buy $18.90 worth of food from a Bathurst Road fast-food restaurant at 7.09am on April 7.
He gave her two more concurrent 12-month good behaviour bonds for the shopping centre purchases, which included $259.15 on one card and $272.95 on a second card between 7.45am and 8.30am.
“The prevalence of this offence is such that there needs to be some deterrence, Mr Day said.
“If you find someone’s credit card, you hand it in.”
Carr initially pleaded not guilty to the offences but when she appeared in court via video link from custody on Monday, her solicitor Andrew Rolfe said she would plead guilty instead.
He said she’s been in custody since she was arrested for these matters on April 18.
“She’s turned 21 while in custody, which was some angst to her, and her uncle died while she was in custody and she wasn’t able to attend his funeral,” Mr Rolfe said.
The cards were stolen from the victim’s car overnight between April 6 and 7 and when questioned by police Carr denied knowing they were stolen.
