LONDON warehouse worker, Kyriacos Christou, has avoided jail after being caught with over £60,000 ($72,500) worth of Pokémon cards stolen from his work.
The owner of the warehouse, Michael Duke, became suspicious after he noticed thousands of pounds worth of stock had gone missing.
Pokémon cards are big business with some selling for thousands of pounds.
He set up CCTV cameras in his warehouse to get to the root of the theft, where Christou was caught opening and pocketing packs of cards.
Duke then confronted Christou, who admitted to the theft after being caught with the cards on him.
Police later raided Christou’s home, where he lives with his mother and brother, and over half a million Pokémon cards were found.
Christou’s brother is a Pokémon YouTuber and many of the cards belonged to him.
However, a number of the cards found matched the missing stock, which Christou admitted to stealing.
According to a report by the Daily Star, Christou was selling the stolen cards on eBay for large sums.
At the low end, cards were being sold in booster packs for £15 ($18), while a rare first edition Lugia was sold for £1000 ($1200).
Christou returned £12,000 ($14,500) worth of cards that were still in his home to Duke.
He also offered to pay Duke £6,000 ($7,250) out of his savings as compensation.
However, of the £61,797 ($75,000) of stock suspected missing, £9,519 ($11,500) is still unaccounted for.
In a victim impact statement, Duke claimed: “I was suffering anxiety due to this incident and the offence has caused me many sleepless nights due to trust issues and the fear it may be repeated from other employees.
“I’m cautious of everyone since the incident. I was a mess for two weeks after and was not able to focus at work.”
Judge Noel Lucas said that Christou would not face jail time if the money was returned within 28 days.
Christou was given a 16-month suspended sentence for two years with 175 hours of community service.
Lucas said on the sentencing: “Were it not for the fact you offered to pay compensation I would have sent you straight to prison, right now.”
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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