Three Drenthe men jailed over Amazon refund fraud

The district court in Assen has convicted two men aged 30 and 32 from Hoogeveen and a 34-year-old man from Emmer-Compascuum of defrauding Amazon. The 30-year-old was sentenced to 35 months in prison and the 32-year-old to 20 months.

The man from Emmer-Compascuum received 10 months, five of them suspended, plus 480 hours of community service.

The court found the three guilty of what it called refund fraud. They ordered expensive items such as phones and smartwatches, then sent the parcels back without the contents. The boxes held rubbish weighing the same as the original shipment, so Amazon processed them as returns and refunded the purchase price.

Police uncovered the fraud by chance. They arrested the 30-year-old main suspect in Hoogeveen in early 2023 after a shooting. In a warehouse, officers found drugs and racks full of luxury goods. It soon emerged that a huge number of parcels were being sent back to Amazon from his address.

At the home of a man from the same town, police found cash, goods still in boxes, phones, computers and shipping labels. The man from Emmer-Compascuum had Amazon accounts that he used to order and return many items. At his home police found money-counting machines, shipping codes, empty envelopes, set squares and a barcode scanner.

In total, Amazon is claiming around $2.5m in damages from the three. The company can still take that claim to the civil court.