Supermarket wine fraudster jailed

A conman who went around supermarkets tricking them into refunding cash for wine he had not bought has been jailed.

As reported by the Hull Daily Mail, Jeffrey Hall, of Buttermere Close in West Hull, would first call supermarkets telling them he wanted a refund for wine he had purchased.

The 42-year-old would then go into stores, including Tesco, Marks and Spencer and Morrisons, empty handed and remove wine from the shelves before asking for his money back at the tills.

Hall was able to convince supermarkets to refund him around £500 worth of cake and wine never purchased.

He was eventually arrested at a Morrisons store where he was again attempting to “return” some wine, however at this point staff had been alerted to the scam.

Sentencing Hall to six months in prison, Judge Michael Mettyear said: “You are a systematically dishonest man and you have been for a long, long time.

“You wanted money and you regarded this as an easy way of getting it, so you fell back into your old ways.

“It was a well-tried path by you that needed a degree of planning, preparation and thought.”