The trade body which polices the £7bn sales promotion industry has admitted it is clueless over the legality of reusing retail coupons, after a woman was cautioned by police for presenting the same coupon multiple times at Sainsbury’s.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the Institute of Promotional Marketing’s Martin Croft conceded that he did not know if she had acted fraudulently as there was no legal precedent.
The woman from Wrexham printed a Unilever coupon – downloaded from MoneySavingExpert.com – several times, using different names on each occasion, getting £150 off her shopping at the supermarket chain. But she was caught, arrested and cautioned on Friday.
It is unclear exactly how she attempted the fraud but it is believed she used the self check-out as some tills allow shoppers to scan multiple vouchers, and deduct the relevant amount, even when not buying the product the voucher is designed for.
Martin Lewis, MoneySavingExpert.com creator, said: “The golden rule when using coupons is never lie or deceive as you can get into trouble. While checking the terms and conditions is acceptable and pushing within the acceptable boundaries is fine, lying or misleading firms is fraud and we strongly caution against it.”
The IPM, which represents the interests of companies that support money-off voucher schemes and other promotional marketing campaigns, puts fraud at more than £300,000 a year.
Chief executive Annie Swift claims the situation is so bad some big brands have considered dropping coupons.
“Our members have reported a massive surge in coupon misuse and in some cases plain fraud,” she said. “Money-off coupons save consumers around £500m a year. That’s a lot. If companies stop issuing these coupons because of the potentially criminal activities of a small number of greedy people, it’s consumers who will suffer.”
In 2009, IPM research claimed that £14.04bn was wasted on price promotions, with 90% of the cost being fronted by suppliers not retailers.
