We would like to bring the following story to the attention of our readers.
It has recently emerged that a woman was cautioned by police for attempting to re-use a money-saving coupon at her local branch of Sainsbury's. The customer printed a coupon several times, using different names to sign up, and used these several times to get a total of £150 off her shopping bills.
However this is not the first time police have been called into a case regarding coupon misuse. In July this year, what is thought to be the first criminal prosecution of coupon misuse took place.
A couple pleaded guilty to defrauding Tesco by reusing a money off coupon worth £17.50. Although the Tesco Clubcard voucher was genuine, and had been sent to the couple by Tesco themselves, the reverse of the coupon stated: ‘This voucher can be used once at its face value, in store, on Tesco fuel, at the Tesco direct desk, online at tesco.com/groceries or tesco.com/direct or for selected Tesco Bank products only’.
The couple used it a total of 62 times at self-service checkouts in seven different stores. They received the £17.50 discount each time, and at the the time of their arrest, they had saved £1,085 from the total cost of their groceries.
The couple were sentenced to a 12-month community order under supervision and were ordered to pay £250 each to Tesco.
Sylvia Rook from Trading Standards Institute said: ‘If a retailer has accepted a coupon in payment for goods, there is a valid contract made,’ she said. 'However if the retailer later realises that a consumer has not followed the terms and conditions, and therefore obtained the goods in breach of the terms, the retailer could potentially claim damages from the consumer for any losses incurred.
‘If the consumer has deliberately ignored the terms and conditions or misused a voucher in order to obtain goods, or cause loss to the retailer, then the consumer could potentially be defrauding the retailer, and could be prosecuted for fraud,’ said Rook.
Debt Free Me says that we fully believe that pushing the boundries to get the best deal for yourself is perfectly acceptable, however defrauding, lying or misleading companies is obviously unacceptable and we recommend always reading the terms and conditions.
