Lewis Gay Shi Jie, a 33-year-old unemployed man, pleaded guilty in a district court to two cheating charges.
Gay switched the price tags on various items at Mustafa Centre in Little India, which led to him paying much less for the items he “cheated”.
Among the items that Gay got was a $578 food mixer, which he paid only $56 to purchase.
Gay saved a total of $980 before he was caught during his second attempt.
Gay was fined $2,500 by the court.
During a stock take, Mustafa staff realised that a food mixer was missing and after checking the CCTV footage, Gay was identified.
When Gay returned on August 22, 2018, a Mustafa security officer recognised him. Gay was behaving suspiciously.
The officer spotted Gay removing the price tag of a $18.90 hairdryer and pasted it onto another more expensive hairdryer that was priced at $155.
The security officer then followed Gay to the cashier where he made payment, he then detained Gay and brought him into the security office.
During mitigation, Mr John Koh from Populus Law Corporation, who was Gay’s lawyer, argued that Gay picked up the food mixer in a “moment of folly”.
Koh sought a fine of $2,000, adding that Gay repaid the cheated amount and Mustafa didn’t suffer any losses.
Koh added that Gay was a first time offender.
For cheating, Gay could have been jailed up to three years and fined.