Theft charge for anyone who lies about the change received from the cashier
A prison sentence and an aggravating circumstance for ‘deftness’ have been imposed on the customer who pocketed the amount due and then complained that he had received less
Key points
A prison sentence has been handed down, with the aggravating circumstance of sleight of hand, for the customer who pocketed the exact change and then complained that he had been short-changed.
The story
Lying about the money received as change whilst claiming the missing amount can prove costly for the buyer who raises an objection to the cashier an error she did not make. The Court of Cassation has thus upheld the sentence of twenty days’ imprisonment for a café customer who had paid for a coffee with a 50-euro note and, after concealing twenty euros, had tricked the cashier into handing him the ‘missing’ note again. However, it was the CCTV cameras in the café, which had captured the sudden movement with which the man, having finished his espresso, had slipped the banknotes into his trousers. Hence the charge of theft with the aggravating circumstance of dexterity, which occurs when one acts with ‘particular skill, cunning or prudence’ so as to ‘surprise, diminish or evade the owner’s surveillance of the property’.
The judges’ verdict
In the case in question, the ploy had been so successful that it persuaded a bewildered cashier to apologise and refund the amount requested. A very bad deal for the appellant, who is paying for his ‘cunning’ with three weeks in prison: practically one for every euro he intended to defraud. For him, there isn’t even the mitigating factorminor nature of the offence, given his previous convictions for fraud and bankruptcy.
