What started as a quick supermarket trip to grab a few groceries — and maybe a last-minute Apple gift card — turned into a nightmare for thousands of unsuspecting customers.
A nationwide scam involving stolen and tampered gift cards has just come to light, and the man at the center of it all, a 26-year-old Chinese national named Junkai Liu, has now been jailed.
How a Simple Supermarket Display Became a Criminal Goldmine
Gift cards are usually placed by supermarket tills — easy to grab, convenient, and seemingly harmless.
But for Liu and the criminal gang behind him, they became a goldmine.
Employed by Chinese gangsters operating in the UK, Liu would quietly swipe hundreds of cards from stores like Morrisons in Dereham and Tesco in Thetford, both in Norfolk.
Once stolen, the cards were tampered with and resealed to look brand new.
When customers later bought them and loaded money onto them, that money didn’t go to Apple or the intended recipient — it went straight into accounts controlled by the criminals.
Thousands of Victims Left Empty-Handed
By the time the scam was uncovered, the damage was enormous.
Liu was caught with more than 7,400 Apple gift cards, some worth up to £250 each — together valued at roughly £1 million.
Morrisons reported tampered cards in as many as 300 of its stores since March, and more than 1,100 customers have since been refunded a total of £91,000 after realizing their cards were worthless.
The Moment He Was Caught
Security staff at Morrisons in Dereham became suspicious after spotting Liu behaving oddly near the gift card display on April 16.
When they saw him slipping cards into his jacket, he bolted from the store — but he didn’t get far.
Just two hours later, police arrested him at a Tesco store in Thetford, where staff had spotted him doing the same thing on CCTV.
Inside the Sophisticated Scam
Prosecutors revealed that Liu was part of a large, well-organized network of criminals who knew exactly what they were doing.
They would scratch off the silver strip hiding the security code, record it, and then reseal the cards so no one would notice.
As soon as someone added funds at a till, the gang used the stolen codes to drain the money instantly.
Shoppers only realized something was wrong when they tried to use their “gifts” and found the balance at zero.
The Judge’s Verdict and Jail Sentence
At Norwich Crown Court, Judge Andrew Shaw made it clear that Liu couldn’t claim ignorance.
“You must have known what you were doing and what you were involved in,” he said, calling the operation “very serious” and describing the number of stolen cards as “astonishing.”
Liu, who moved to the UK in 2019, was sentenced to 32 months in prison and has been told he will likely be deported once his sentence is over.
Why He Did It
Liu’s lawyer, Oliver Haswell, said his client had been struggling financially and was drawn into the operation out of desperation.
But authorities believe others higher up in the criminal chain are still at large.
Warnings From Authorities
Both Morrisons and Tesco declined to comment on the case, but the Home Office reaffirmed its position on deporting foreign offenders.
Meanwhile, Action Fraud issued a public warning, saying gift card scams are “on the rise” and “catching out more people than ever.”
They advised customers to check gift cards carefully before buying, making sure the packaging hasn’t been tampered with, and whenever possible, buy cards kept behind the counter rather than those displayed in open aisles.
A Costly Lesson for Shoppers
This case serves as a harsh reminder of how even something as ordinary as a supermarket gift card can become a target for organized crime.
While Liu’s arrest has brought part of the operation down, the scam’s scale suggests many others are still exploiting unsuspecting shoppers across the country.