Newstalk ZB
A serial shoplifter was so desperate for cash that she pretended to have cancer and used other people’s discarded receipts to ask for refunds on goods she never paid for. Anna Salari, who is also known as Tracey Salari, is a recidivist shoplifter who has served a handful of jail terms over the years. But that time behind bars appears to have done little to deter the 57-year-old, who spent nearly a year ripping off more than 20 different businesses across the Waikato and Auckland. She targeted those stores nearly 60 times, stealing items worth a total of just under $25,000. The breadth of her thievery and skulduggery was so vast, it took Judge Tini Clark more than 20 minutes to read out the five different tabs of summary of facts documents detailing each of her acts. There was also confusion in court as to exactly how many charges she faced; the judge counted 59, the police 58, and her lawyer, 57. The court heard Salari was persistent. Her modus operandi was relatively simple but audacious; she’d simply charge items back to organisations like the Hamilton City Council, or walk into a store, grab an item, then show a used receipt and ask for a refund. On some occasions, she’d write a note as a staff member had their back turned, to help confirm the legitimacy of her fraud. This month she appeared for sentencing in the Hamilton District Court, where her lawyer, Stephanie Penn, faced the task of trying to keep her out of prison. ‘I’m a cancer patient’ Salari admitted 59 charges: 15 charges of obtaining by deception, four of attempting to obtain by deception, six of theft over $1000, and the remainder involving thefts and attempted thefts under $1000. The timeframe was over 10 months between December 2023 and October 2024, while 10 offences happened while she was subject to post-home detention conditions. She most commonly targeted retail outlets, usually The Warehouse, Bunnings, Woolworths, Briscoes, Mitre 10, Harvey Norman, and Farmers. However, other small businesses and franchises were also hit; Backdoor, Pet Doctors, NZ Safety Blackwoods, Hunting and Fishing, Top Town Wheels and Tyres, Foot Forward shoes, Tony’s Tyres, Oxfords Clothing, Comins Pharmacy Cambridge, Health 2000, Whole Heart foods Hamilton, Country Providore, Bed Bath and Table, Farmlands, Rogerson Stables, and Resene in Hamilton. While Salari was mostly successful, she faced charges of attempting to obtain by deception or theft after staff or security picked up on her antics and either denied her a refund or recognised her and asked her to leave. That happened at Bunnings, Hamilton South, on December 11, 2023, where she asked for a paint to be made up and then asked for a refund of $55. The staff refused because the details didn’t match and she became angry, saying her husband had earlier bought the goods. Security in The Warehouse also busted her after watching her put $59 worth of items in a trolley, then, using a receipt, ask for a refund. Another time she grabbed an $800 Dyson vacuum cleaner and simply walked out without paying. It was July 6 when she walked around the Mitre 10 Te Rapa car park picking up receipts off the ground and the rubbish bin before walking inside with an empty trolley, looking for the items. She asked a staff member for help to get spray paint and a floor rug before going to the customer desk to return them both. The rug happened to have been bought by a staff member, and she claimed to be their mother, but told them she’d leave that and just get the refund for the spray paint, for which she was duly paid $76.32. On August 9, she rang Harvey Norman Te Rapa for an update on the arrival of a bunk bed and asked for a refund. In store, she presented a bank statement as proof of identity, but couldn’t present the same Eftpos card that was used to buy the $600 bed. She became “agitated and caused a scene” when staff denied her a refund before claiming she was a cancer patient. Staff eventually succumbed and refunded her $600. On two...
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