Supermarket Theft Charges Reduced After Defense Challenges Customer Data Tracking
Indictments against two supermarket customers for serial thefts were reduced after defense lawyers challenged the security department's use of customer club data and credit card records to uncover past incidents.
Two customers of the "Victory" supermarket branch at the Ayalon Mall were recently charged with a series of thefts after security officers reviewed their past shopping records and uncovered suspected prior incidents. However, a defense argument regarding the alleged unauthorized use of personal data led to significant changes in both legal cases.
Police Agreement and Dropped Charges
Following arguments presented by the Public Defender's Office, the police prosecution dropped the multiple charges relating to past events for both defendants. Each case was reduced to a single charge concerning the specific incident during which the suspects were caught. Consequently, the files were transferred to a conditional arrangement track that concludes without a criminal record. The underlying question regarding the legality of the private security database checks was not formally decided by the court.
The central figures in the case are a woman and a man who had criminal indictments filed against them at the Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court. The woman faced 12 theft-related charges spanning from March to August 2025. According to the indictment, she allegedly filled a cart with merchandise, left it near the cash registers, and proceeded to self-service checkouts with a few items totaling between 30 and 80 shekels. She then reportedly returned to the cart and exited with unpaid goods using the initial receipt, with the value of goods per incident ranging from 383 to 1,080 shekels.
Defense Arguments on Privacy
The second defendant, a father from Bnei Brak, faced seven theft charges between June and October 2025 for allegedly failing to scan several items at self-checkout terminals. Attorney Keren Avelin Hertz of the Public Defender's Office focused heavily on how evidence for the past incidents was gathered. She argued that club membership data and credit card details were used improperly for investigative purposes rather than marketing.
"The problem lies in what they did to catch her for all the previous times she was not caught," explained Avelin Hertz, noting that data usage exceeded database purposes and violated privacy protection laws.
Ultimately, while the past charges were dismissed in favor of conditional agreements, the broader legal question regarding retail security data collection remains unresolved.
