Pizza voucher fraudsters

MUMBAI: Five employees of Pizza Hut food chain were arrested, along with two others, in a case of cheating and forgery. Police said the accused made duplicate copies of redeemable gift vouchers issued by the eatery.

Whenever a customer placed a substantial order and paid in cash, the accused would pocket the money and deposit the duplicate gift voucher at the counter. And this continued for five months making a neat Rs 97,700 (£1,110) for the accused.

The mastermind was a former employee, Vikrant Shirodkar (21). He was helped by two cashiers, one each from the Lokhandwala and Malad Mindspace outlets, besides two delivery boys.

Duplicate copies of the vouchers were made using a scanner and colour printers. The accused then forged the signatures of senior executives of Pizza Hut on the vouchers and even stamped them with a new set of serial numbers and dates.

"Shirodkar, a college dropout, was sacked earlier this year, following which he came up with this plan," said investigating officer Arun Pokharkar.

Shirodkar contacted his friend, Santosh Ghadigavkar (21), who used to work in a printing company, and convinced him to make copies of a few gift vouchers. The duplicates were stored in a CD and later forged.

"The next step was getting those fake vouchers into the outlet, but Shirodkar could not gain entry. So, he befriended the cashiers and delivery boys in the two outlets and offered them a share if they agreed to join hands with him," said Pokarkar.

Whenever major orders were placed and customers paid in cash, the cashiers would pocket the sum and deposit the duplicate vouchers in its place.

The delivery boys helped them by using the same modus operandi for home deliveries. Eventually, managers at the Mindspace outlet smelled a rat and began keeping tabs on the accounts.