Two men used the deposit system to extort over three thousand euros from grocery stores in Finland. The court found that the receipts they presented so closely resembled the original ones that the cashiers' mistake was inevitable. The fraudsters were sentenced to four months of conditional imprisonment.
The duo, aged in their thirties, exchanged counterfeit receipts for money dozens of times – reports the daily “Iltalehti” in Saturday's edition. The maximum value of a single return made in supermarkets in the country's largest shopping center, Jumbo, in Vantaa near Helsinki, was over EUR 130.
The police described the receipts used by the men as “professionally” prepared. They managed to exchange the false coupons for the return of beverage containers for cash for about two months. The fraudsters were caught red-handed. Forged receipts were also found in the car they were traveling in, according to the case files.
Plastic bottles are difficult to recycleShutterstock
One of the men had a computer with a professional graphics processing program installed and a portable receipt roll printer.
In addition to four months in prison, the court also ordered the convicts to cover the damage caused to the traders. The district court's judgment became final because the appellate court rejected the request to initiate appeal proceedings.
The deposit system in Finland
IN Finland The deposit system for packaging has been operating for over 70 years and dates back to the Olympic Games in Helsinki, which were organized in 1952, when, along with the spread of Coca-Cola drinks, a system for trading glass bottles was created. In the 1980s, it also covered plastic bottles, and in the 1990s, aluminum cans.
Finland's recycling rate is among the highest in the world Dmitrii Iakimov / Shutterstock.com
Currently, the recycling rate in Finland is one of the highest in the world (approx. 95% of returned cans, approx. 90% of plastic bottles, approx. 87% of glass bottles). In a country inhabited by approximately 5.5 million people, there are approximately 4,000. machines accepting returnable packaging (found mainly in grocery stores). Deposits range from 10 euro cents for a small can to 40 euro cents for a large plastic bottle. After returning the packages, the machine prints a receipt that can be presented at the store's checkout.
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