This Guy Just Got Arrested for Scamming a Self-Checkout Machine

Every once in awhile, treating yourself to a cinnamon swirl and passing it off at the self-checkout as an onion can feel like you're really sticking it to the man. Those evil, corporate supermarket suits can do without the extra 28p, right?

But for one guy, the temptation to quietly cheat the system—one unnoticed unexpected item in the bagging area at a time—proved to be his downfall.

Aiden Martin Devlin from Belfast appeared in court yesterday and pleaded guilty to cheating a Tesco self-service checkout in Newtownbreda by scanning apples and keying them into the machine as less expensive carrots. According to the supermarket's website, loose apples cost £2 per kilo, while loose carrots cost just 60p per kilo.

The audacity.

Devlin confessed to 12 self-service theft charges committed during June and July this year, admitting that he knowingly scammed the machine to make a profit for himself at Tesco's loss. His sentence is still to be decided by courts.

According to a report published in August by criminologists at the University of Leicester, we're all just as bad as the Belfast vegetable villain. The study suggests that self-service checkouts are turning honest shoppers into hard-nosed criminals. Since the introduction of the machines, many supermarkets have reported an increase in losses.

You'd better think twice about sneaking a few grapes before you've paid for them, too.