An ingenious but illegal scheme has landed a former IKEA employee in Norway behind bars. The woman was sentenced to 25 days in prison for creating gift cards for herself totaling 130,000 Norwegian kroner (approximately $15,000). She was also ordered to repay the amount to IKEA.
The case was a plea deal, as the woman had already admitted to the crime.
How she did it
The woman began her criminal activities while working at the IKEA Slependen store in Asker, Norway.
Instead of printing a single gift card for 130,000 Norwegian kroner, she created fictitious customer complaints from 12 different people and then issued gift cards to herself.
The amounts on these gift cards ranged from 2,000 ($185) to 11,084 ($1028) Norwegian kroner.
Exploiting security loopholes
The court's verdict stated that the woman had exploited gaps in IKEA's security procedures to fund her personal expenses.
She had gone to great lengths to vary her methods of embezzlement to avoid detection.
The woman was sentenced to 25 days in prison and was also ordered to repay 130,000 Norwegian kroner (approximately $15,000) to IKEA. The case was straightforward as she had already admitted to her actions.
