NEW?GLASGOW – An “unsophisticated crime” has netted a 41-year-old Stellarton man a year’s probation.
Glen Garland Harold Murray, along with a co-accused, entered the Pictou Home Hardware location from the rear lumber yard entrance. The duo were caught on video moving some merchandise around and, a few minutes later, approached an employee and claimed they were returning 12 packages of roofing shingles.
The pair was offered a store credit of $338.86 for the shingles, which they refused, Crown attorney Jody McNeil told Pictou provincial court on Tuesday. Video cameras caught the duo loading the shingles into their vehicle and driving away.
Later, the pair tried to return the same shingles to the Stellarton Home Hardware outlet. A store employee again offered store credit, which they accepted this time. The duo signed a return slip before leaving the premises.
“This wasn’t a terribly sophisticated crime, especially as they left their signatures and phone numbers on the receipt,” said McNeil.
Murray and his co-accused sold the store credit later for $150 to an unnamed person.
When store management reviewed the videotapes from the Pictou location a few days later, they contacted the RCMP to complain of fraud.
Murray admitted his involvement in the crime and expressed “a great deal of remorse over what occurred,” McNeil added.
Murray has a dated prior record, prompting the Crown to ask for a 15-month probation sentence, but Judge Theodore Tax said mitigating circumstances like his early guilty plea made 12 months a fit sentence.
Murray will have to pay restitution to the store to cover the $338.86 store credit.