German backpacker fined $100 for stealing meat at Woolworths self-service for mate’s barbecue

A “POOR backpacker” has faced court for stealing food for a friend’s birthday BBQ from a Woolworths self-service checkout.

A GERMAN backpacker fined $100 for stealing meat from a Woolworths self-service checkout said he was too poor to afford groceries for a friend’s birthday barbecue.

Moritz Gjukic pleaded guilty to stealing bacon, mince and cheese from the Woolworths in Hinkler Central on February 21 after only scanning a portion of his items, Bundaberg’s News-Mail reported.

Appearing in the Bundaberg Magistrates Court last week, Gjukic said he was working on a lemon farm but only earning $50 a day. The court heard he had a budget of $60 but the groceries were expensive and he was a “poor backpacker”.

Magistrate Belinda Merrin fined Gjukic $100 but did not record a conviction. A Woolworths spokeswoman declined to comment.

Last year, a Queensland mum was handed a suspended jail sentence over an elaborate, month-long self-service checkout scam in which she stole $4500 worth of groceries from Coles and Woolworths.

Kylie Milner stole more than 30 slabs of meat, a set of sheets, dishwashing tablets and two coffee pod machines each valued at nearly $200 by photocopying barcodes from 65c and 72c packets of two-minute noodles onto sticky labels, which they then affixed to more expensive items.

Her scheme only began to unravel when supermarket managers noticed the sudden, suspicious spike in sales of two-minute noodles.

Recently, a German man was fined $326,000 for stealing $73.50 worth of veal liver as cheap fruit. The excessive fine was based on the fact the man had a monthly income $37,500.

In a bid to cut down on self-service theft, which costs Coles and Woolworths millions of dollars annually, an Australian technology start-up has been trialling a birds-eye camera which can automatically identify the product and enter the information in the point-of-sale system.

“The big value for supermarkets is removing the significant loss seen from people entering the wrong information when using self-service check-outs,” Tiliter Technology co-founder Chris Sampson said last week.

“However, customers will also benefit by not needing to search through menus trying to identify the items they are purchasing.”

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