The trial against a former cashier at the IKEA store in Zaventem started on Tuesday. The man allowed several friends to pass the checkout without having to pay. IKEA is demanding €66,000 in damages from the man and his friends.
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Cashier at IKEA in Zaventem lets friends pass the till without paying
Colin Clapson
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The Halle-Vilvoorde public prosecutor's office launched an investigation into 25 instances of theft in June 2022 after the management of the furniture store in Zaventem saw on CCTV footage that one of their cashiers had repeatedly let several people pass the checkout without paying.
‘He pretended to scan the purchases and printed out a blank receipt afterwards,’ prosecutor Karel Claes explained. The fake clients pretended to pay every time. They even inserted their bank card into the payment terminal, but no money left their accounts.’
The cashier was arrested and told investigators that he regularly received money from his friends that passed his cash register without paying. In total, he is believed to have earned 5,000 euros in this way. According to IKEA Belgium's lawyer, a total of 66,431 euros has been stolen.
Suspended sentences
The prosecution is seeking a 1-year suspended prison sentence for the former cashier, and suspended prison sentences of between 2 to 8 months for 4 people who allegedly passed the check-out one or more times without paying.
4 of the 5 defendants admitted the facts and asked for leniency. ‘We were young,’ they claimed. ‘We got carried away.’ One defendant denied that he had stolen anything, despite the statements of his co-accused.
Sentencing is on November 5.