In St. Petersburg, a saleswoman from Belarus believed scammers and took money from the till. But she refused to compensate the owner
Liliya Dyatko, a geodetic engineer from Polotsk, signed a payment schedule to repay the money. But then she changed her mind about paying. And the court partially sided with her.
44-year-old Liliya Dyatko once studied in Polotsk to become a geodetic engineer, but eventually went to Russia to work. In 2021, she got a job in St. Petersburg as a cashier-saleswoman at Noone, a boutique of Italian shoes and clothing.
One day, while she was at work, an unknown person called the store's landline. He said something that made Liliya take everything that was in the till — about $4500, put the money onto her own bank card at an ATM, and transferred it to the caller.
It was never clear who this scammer was. But the money was never recovered.
The store owners, naturally, were not pleased with the strange story, but they understood the situation — they agreed that the Belarusian woman would return the money in installments. She signed an agreement — obliging her to first repay about $1150, then another similar amount, and the rest to be withheld from her salary, approximately $250 per month.
However, Dyatko ultimately returned nothing and eventually resigned of her own accord. Then the store owners went to court.
The court ruled that, according to her job description, the Belarusian woman was responsible for the safety of the cash receipts. And before following the instructions of an unknown person over the phone, Liliya should have identified them, but she failed to do so.
Nevertheless, it was decided to take into account that the Belarusian woman is not wealthy and has family problems. Therefore, Liliya Dyatko was ordered to pay only $2840, about 63% of what she took from the till.