'Greedy' supermarket cheat substituted carrots for meat

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A man defrauded a supermarket of $153 at the self-service checkout by putting through expensive items like meat and peppers as carrots, a court has been told.

Darren John Gardner, 22, of Dobson, was living in Napier at the time of the offending but has since moved back to the Coast.

He appeared in Greymouth District Court yesterday where he was sentenced for five counts of fraud and other unrelated offences.

The court was told he falsified prices at the self-service checkout of a Napier supermarket five times after realising he could get peppers for a fraction of their price by punching in 'carrots' on the screen.

His offending intensified and he was soon labelling $60 meat packages as carrots and paying $6 for them.

Lawyer Richard Bodle said Gardner's situation was caused by need not greed, but Judge Jane Farish disagreed.

"I don't accept that, he keeps going back getting more and more ... he got greedy."

The judge said Gardner had a bad history of dishonesty and disobedience, and had been on release conditions from a prison sentence when committing his latest crimes.

She sentenced him to four months' community detention, 180 hours' community work, 12 months' supervision, disqualified him from driving for 12 months and also ordered that he pay reparation of $153.