$2-million theft lands London Drugs worker in jail

An employee theft that cost London Drugs as much as $2 million over five years has landed one of its workers in jail, according to a report.

The employee – 34-year-old Carlos Cenon Santos – is believed to have stolen a total of 245 separate items over the course of five years, which he then sold on Craigslist.

From those items, he pocketed about $1 million, reported CBC, citing a B.C. provincial court judgment.

"The quantum of the theft is clearly staggering," Judge Nancy Phillips said as she sentenced the employee.

"It was clearly deliberate, intentional and planned. And Mr. Santos did not stop until he was caught. Otherwise, it continued unabated and undetected."

Phillips sentenced Santos to two years in prison last month after he pleaded guilty to theft over $5,000.

"He knows that one of the biggest consequences to him will be that his employment prospects in the future will be hugely negatively impacted. He understands he has to pay for what he has done,'" she said.

Saskatchewan lost thousands of dollars to a number of employee fraud and theft incidents reported earlier this year.

‘Dissatisfaction as an employee’

Philips said that Santos spent the money he made from the stolen items to finance his lifestyle and to cover expenses.

"I am told that Mr. Santos spent the money mostly to fund his lifestyle and to do such things as paying bills, to buy medicine for his family and to make online purchases," the judge said.

However, the crime started because the worker was dissatisfied with what he was getting from his employment, reported CBC.

"Mr. Santos, I am told, comes from a good home. He allowed his dissatisfaction as an employee with London Drugs to cause him to act out in vengeance, and from there, it gained momentum. He feels quite ashamed of his behaviour."

A victim impact statement from the employer pointed out that the theft happened during the two-year period of the COVID pandemic when "London Drugs was struggling as an employer,” according to the report.

London Drugs hired Santos in October 2016. He was trained as a merchandise handler and worked his way into handling "high-value items, including electronic items."

Lack of searches of employee bags leads to thefts

To conduct the crime, Santos took advantage "of an awareness he had that employee bags were not searched when an employee left the premise at the end of or during their shift,” the judge said, according to CBC.

"The offence itself, the pattern, was mostly an unsophisticated one that involved Mr. Santos using his access to these high-value electronic items," Phillips said in the report.

"He would remove items such as laptops from their packaging, secret them under his shirt, go to his locker area in the employee room and then secret the item in a pack. He would leave at the end of the shift with the item in his pack."

However, one supervisor noticed that Santos appeared to be concealing a laptop, and that kicked off surveillance on the worker. Overall, he was found stealing 52 items during the time he was under surveillance.

Santos shared an itemized recounting of all the thefts and profits when he was confronted by store management, according to the report.

"He confessed in a statement to the police to a years-long theft from London Drugs for money or gain. He added that he was unhappy with the company and its wages and pace, and he started to steal in a bit of an act of vengeance against his employer."

Earlier this year, two female employees of a lottery retail outlet in Ontario were arrested and are facing charges for their alleged involvement in the claiming of a prize from a stolen winning ticket.