Tuesday 5 August 2008

Man jailed for barcode scam

A man has been jailed for using homemade barcodes to get fraudulent discounts on department store goods.

Adelaide police arrested Victorian man Edward Imre Podolak, 37, as he tried to buy his fourth coffee machine with a false barcode, at Tea Tree Plaza shopping centre in April.

They uncovered stacks of fake barcodes in his wallet and car and $25,000 worth of goods at a caravan park at West Beach where he was staying.

Magistrate Ted Iuliano described the scheme as sophisticated and premeditated.

He said Podolak had travelled from his home in Victoria to commit the offences.

The magistrate said he considered Podolak's obsessive compulsive disorder and early guilty pleas in sentencing him to 12 months in jail.

Podolak was given a lighter-than-usual two month non-parole term because he is the sole family carer.

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