Tesco worker and boyfriend stole £20,000 in scam

MORE THAN 200 ILLEGAL USES OF GIFT CARDS

A NOTTINGHAM Tesco worker scammed the firm out of £20,000 using a gift card fraud carried out with her boyfriend.

Nottingham Crown Court heard how, over five months, mother-ofone Shaquna Shephard, 27, “tricked the system” at the Clifton petrol station where she worked, carrying out more than 200 illegal transactions.

She would take gift cards, put values on them and then use an override key to refund the cash.

Her partner, 34-year-old Kliyan Wildman-dinnall, would then go into the shop, sometimes when she told him it would be quiet, take the cards and use them for themselves.

Imposing suspended sentences on the couple, Recorder Robert Moretto said: “You, Shepherd, used your employee access to the till to take the cards for yourself and you did this over a sustained period of time. Mr Dinnall, you assisted by coming into the Tesco and taking away the gift cards.

“There were then text messages between you in which you, Shephard, told Dinnall to trust you and you boasted you would get away with it.”

Anthony Cheung, prosecuting, said Shephard worked for Tesco for around five years. Between September 2021 and January 2022, she carried out 205 fraudulent gift card transactions and took a total of £20,005 from the Clifton Lane petrol station.

Mr Cheung said: “She would input the gift cards as being paid for by cash but no cash entered the till. She then effectively tricked the system using a staff key, not an actual key, but a button, to refund the customer. Mr Dinnall’s involvement was taking away the gift cards.

“They exchanged text messages with him asking when she was at work and whether it was OK to come and get the cards.”

The fraud was discovered by Tesco and Shephard was questioned by her manager.

She responded by saying “they kept pressuring me to do it” and “I know I have done wrong”.

The prosecutor said there were text messages between the defendants in which she said to her boyfriend “I am a bad girl”.

Both defendants admittted conspiracy to defraud.

Shephard, of Gregory Avenue, Lenton, was jailed for nine months, suspended for 18 months, with 10 rehabilitation sessions and 120 hours’ unpaid work.

In mitigation, Sian Barber said Shephard had a two-year-old child with her co-defendant and now worked in a pharmacy which was aware of the court proceedings.

“This is her first experience of the criminal justice system and she is ashamed of her actions.

“She is distraught to find herself in this position today. She will keep her job if she’s not handed an immediate custodial sentence.”

Wildman-dinnall, of Dungannon Road, Clifton, received a six-month sentence, suspended for a year, with 10 rehabilitation sessions and 80 hours’ unpaid work.

Matt Hayes, his barrister, said his client had children from a previous relationship including a 14-year-old daughter who lived with him and a younger son who was on the books at Lincoln City FC. He said: “At the time, it is clear he had issues with drugs but he is now clean of them. He was working at the YMCA but he was sacked from his job. He knows his actions have put his children’s futures in jeopardy. He now works as a delivery driver and has not committed any new offences since these.”