A 19-year-old Frenchman, named Adel, has been handed a suspended sentence after a PlayStation 4 price swap involving weighing the PS4 on a scale meant for fruit saw him snag the console for the price of just $10. The sentence comes after the price switch took place in September 2018, with the sentenced party’s defense being that he was trying to raise money in order to buy a train ticket home. The prison sentence, however, is being handed down instead as a suspended sentence rather than a time behind bars and will remain in place for five years.
Adel’s plan was a simple one. French publication L’est Republicain reported that simply by weighing the PS4, printing out a price sticker, and attaching it to a PS4 before using a self-checkout service, Adel managed to get his hands on a brand new PS4 for around 10 bucks. Once the teen had the PS4 out of the shop, he sold it for a pretty healthy profit, getting about $100 back. He would later tell police that he needed the money to order to buy a train ticket in order to get back to his home town of Nice.
He didn’t stop there. After succeeding once, he returned to the supermarket the next day and tried to repeat the scam. Adel was then supposed to attend a court hearing, which he skipped. After the repeated offenses and the choice of the defendant to not show up to trial, a four-month prison sentence was handed down onto the teenager, with the caveat being that it’s a suspended sentence, should he re-offend. The choice from the court to hand down the sentence as a suspended one means that Adel will be charged for these offenses alongside any future charges he incurs within the five years that this suspended sentence remains in place.
(Via Kotaku)
