An ‘influencer,’ would walk into TK Maxx stores with her chihuahua in her handbag to refund counterfeit designer clothes in a scam worth more than £1,200, a court has heard.
Angelica Zabrodina, 48, claimed hundreds of pounds back for expensive garments including a Dolce & Gabanna dress, by targetting stores in London, it was said.
Prosecutor Amanda Hamilton told Prospero House – London’s first ‘Nightingale’ court: ‘On six separate dates Ms Zabrodina took items into various TK Maxx stores around London and she purported to be returning genuine items she had either bought from other stores or online.
‘But what she had done is swap labels from other more expensive items or returned items of no value whatsoever, counterfeit items, and got the money back.’
Angelica Zabrodina is accused of fleecing TK Maxx out of more than £1,200 at stores in London including Covent Garden and Kensington
Footage was shown to jurors earlier today of Zabrodina, who describes herself as an actor, extra, model, influencer and photographer online, walking into a TK Maxx store with her white chihuahua in her handbag.
A trial at Prospero House, London’s first ‘Nightingale’ court, heard she was carrying the dog on ‘multiple occasions,’ during CCTV footage.
Prosecutors alleged she would print out multiple receipts for online purchases and return items she bought elsewhere while trying to fleece stores between October and November 2018.
Germaine Parry, a regional loss prevention officer for TK Maxx, said Zabrodina swindled the store out of a total of £1,236.96.
Germaine Parry, a regional loss prevention officer, said there were ‘inconsistencies,’ between the clothes she returned and the genuine merchandise she claimed they were
He said she ripped out the original labels and ‘badly’ sewed designer labels in their place, then tried to return the items to branches of TK Maxx, incuding Covent Garden and High Street Kensington.
‘I gathered most of the CCTV,’ he said.
‘I spoke to the staff aware of my investigation. I investigated the clothes.
‘I looked into it to see if it was genuine. But the dress was labelled Balenciaga, a fashion brand. As I looked at the item she refunded I could see there were inconsistencies with the genuine merchandise.
‘You could see remnants of the original wash label that wasn’t there anymore.’
Referring to an allegedly fraudulent refund of a pink Dolce & Gabbana dress, Mr Parry said: ‘The item she presented was a pink sequined dress to value of £249.99.
‘As I managed to get possession of that item I could see it had been tampered with and not genuine, the bright pink dress.
‘The traditional back label where most brands are was hanging off, not quality in line with Dolce & Gabanna.
‘The wash label was badly sewn in and contradicted the item. It said there was no embroidery which did not match the item we had.’
He told the jury she used store loopholes to print multiple receipts from online purchases to refund the same white dress twice.
‘Ordinarily when a customer refunds an item they are given 28 days in terms of refunds,’ said Mr Perry.
‘Sometimes customers who want to extend that policy refund it then buy it back to extend that refund. We don’t encourage it but we can’t stop it.
Zabrodina’s trial is being heard at Prospero House, London’s first so-called ‘Nightingale’ court, set up to deal with a backlog in cases
‘But what she refunded was not the same item she purchased.
‘Based on that item and the receipt she produced to get that refund of the white dress she brought with a £300 price ticket actually belonged to the white dress that she had already refunded.’
Ms Hamilton asked: ‘If someone has printed a receipt off online can they just print out the receipts as they like?’
He replied: ‘I see no reason why not.
‘I’ve seen many loopholes in the system and they are existent. Some of our systems are quite dated.’
Describing another incident Mr Parry said: ‘The sunglasses she refunded here she produced the Brioni docket but presented the Boucheron sunglasses instead.
Three pairs had been purchased for £96. In total she used that docket three times to refer to items she purchased twice. She used it one more time than she was entitled to use.’
‘There was also a Stella McCartney item which was badly sewed in. The black outer layer said Stella McCartney made in Hungary but inside in the actual lining was Stella McCartney made in Italy.’
Zabrodina, of, Marylebone, London, denies eight counts of fraud by false representations.
The trial continues.