Alexander Dong Qi Ren: Uber Eats executive sentenced after stealing $80K from restaurants

A former Uber Eats executive managed to rort the system and steal almost $80,000 from 50 restaurants across Australia. Here’s how he did it.

Former Uber Eats account executive Alexander Dong Qi Ren, 28, faced Downing Centre Local Court.

An ex-Uber Eats accounts executive stole almost $80K from 50 restaurants around Australia while he battled a gambling addiction.

Alexander Dong Qi Ren, of Homebush, faced Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.

The 28-year-old was sentenced to an eight-month intensive correction order and was ordered to complete 75 hours of community service work.

Court documents state Ren’s offences spanned from September 2023 to May 2024 and revealed how he swindled $78,829 from the restaurants.

The restaurants had signed up to provide Uber Eats food deliveries, however had not entered a bank account, the documents state.

Ren stole $78,829 from 50 restaurants around Australia over a year.

The money the restaurants were paid was held by Uber until the businesses provided account details. Once an account was created, the companies would receive their delivery payments.

Ren managed to link his personal bank details to several businesses who were behind in finalising their banking information.

Uber became aware of the offending in August last year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Uber Investigators became suspicious in August last year when Melbourne’s Soho Sushi’s bank details were updated to a Commonwealth Bank despite having a St George Bank BSB.

Once they discovered Ren had put his personal bank account details on the 50 restaurants’ Uber Eats accounts, his laptop was seized and his employment was suspended.

Ren wrote Uber an apology letter for committing fraud and “abusing the trust given to him”. He stated he offended while he was working from home as he was “scared” someone from the office would see what he was doing.

The affected restaurants had been in the dark about the theft. Picture: File

Ren was arrested at Day Street Police Station in January where he told police he was addicted to gambling and used the stolen money to cover his cash loss.

Ren’s defence lawyer Bradley Edwards made an application for his case to be dismissed on mental health grounds due to his client’s addiction to gambling as a coping mechanism for his borderline personality disorder, depression and anxiety.

Mr Edwards argued Ren’s mental illnesses were linked to the “opportunistic” offending and therefore reduced his ability to make moral decisions.

The police prosecutor opposed the application and said given the sophistication of the offending, the amount of money stolen and the planned nature, there was a need for him to be dealt with under the criminal law.

Magistrate Megan Greenwood denied the mental health application and said these types of crimes were “hard to detect”.

Ms Greenwood said Ren had stopped gambling and was receiving counselling.

Got a news tip? Email [e-mail]

Originally published as Alexander Dong Qi Ren: Uber Eats executive sentenced after stealing $80K from restaurants