Butcher guilty of meat fraud for putting discounts on beef for himself and others: ‘It was a scam’

A Newfoundland judge has convicted a butcher with theft and eight counts of fraud for putting deep discounts on meat for himself, his friends and fellow employees.

Between March and May of last year, Jins Joseph was caught on surveillance cameras multiple times changing stickers on beef so it was labelled as cheaper cuts and giving himself and others 50 per cent discounts that weren’t warranted. One fraud expert testified Joseph’s actions over the course of 27 weeks starting in November 2024 cost the Dominion Store in Corner Brook where he worked about $2,700.

“I conclude that Mr. Joseph was purposely mislabelling meat in order to reduce his and other’s price of purchase. This had nothing to do with unsaleable meat. It was a scam designed to benefit Mr. Joseph and others financially by fraudulently lowering the price of the meat they were purchasing,” Provincial Court Judge Wayne Gorman wrote in a recent decision.

Dominion assigned Markus Penney, an asset protection expert, to investigate after fielding an internal complaint about Joseph.

Using surveillance cameras, Penney watched Joseph change labels on stew meat, instead calling it ground beef.

“Mr. Penney testified that stewing beef is ‘significantly’ more expensive than ground beef,” Gorman said in his July 24 decision.

Joseph handed the deeply discounted packages to fellow employees and also bought them himself, said the decision.

“Matthew Corbin, who has been employed at the Dominion Store for eighteen years, nine in the meat department, testified that employees are not allowed to place incorrect labels on meat being packaged,” it said.

“He also testified that ground beef is the least expensive meat that can be purchased at the store.”

One surveillance video showed Joseph cutting up a roast that he took from the store’s shelf, repackaging it, putting on a new label and handing the meat to another employee to buy.

“A receipt for this transaction was entered as an exhibit. It indicates that a package of ‘ground beef’ was purchased in the amount of $10.52. Mr. Penney testified that roast is significantly more expensive than ground beef. Mr. Penney indicated that the cost of the roast would have been $40 to $50.”

Another video shows Joseph repackaging stewing beef and applying a new label before buying it.

“The receipt indicates that a package of ‘ground beef’ was purchased in the amount of $6.63, with a discount of $1.04,” said the decision, which notes Penney testified that the meat would normally cost between $20 and $30.

Joseph also took four rib steaks out of their packaging, repackaged them in two packs, re-labelled them, and walked them to the self-checkout.

“He places a ‘fifty percent off’ sticker on one of the packages. He pays for only that one.”

An April 2, 2025, video shows Joseph retrieving a large piece of meat from the freezer, then packaging and labelling it, said the decision.

“He then returns to the counter and places a fifty percent discount sticker on the packaged meat.”

A supervisor approved the discount and Joseph bought the meat, described as ground beef on the receipt.

“The cost is $25.98, minus the fifty percent discount of $12.99. Mr. Penny testified that this was not ground beef. He described it as a ‘premium cut’ that would be cut into steaks or a roast.”

The best before date on the package was April 4, said the decision. “Mr. Penny testified that because this was ‘fresh meat,’ it would not have been subject to a fifty percent reduction.”

Joseph was caught on camera taking a couple of jars of seafood sauce and placing them on the scale in the meat department, then printing off labels.

“He then places those labels on four packages of ground beef he retrieved from the freezer,” said the decision, which notes the receipt indicates he got them for half price, even though there was no 50 per cent off sticker on the hamburger.

He later placed the discounted meat that he’d paid for in a box on top of four other packages of beef, said the decision.

“The recording shows Mr. Joseph turning off the lights in the meat department and leaving the store with the box of meat. He walks past the cash register area and does not pay for the meat on the bottom of the box.”

Joseph was interviewed after the internal probe wrapped up by Mitchell Rose, manager of Dominion’s security systems on a province-wide basis.

“Mr. Rose testified that during the interview, Mr. Joseph indicated that he was taking items from the store without paying for them, reducing the price of items and purchasing those items for a lesser price. Mr. Rose testified that Mr. Joseph also said that he was doing this for himself and others. Mr. Rose testified that Mr. Joseph indicated that this activity began around November of 2024 and that he was stealing approximately $100 of meat per week. Based upon it starting in November of 2024, Mr. Rose concluded that it was ongoing for approximately twenty-seven weeks, thereby causing a loss of approximately $2,700 to the Dominion Store in Corner Brook.”

Joseph explained that “he felt disrespected by Dominion, who were not giving him enough shifts or paying him sufficiently,” Rose testified.

Joseph testified that he was born in India and came to Canada for school.

Joseph complained that “the store had cut back his hours in order to ‘force him out.’ He indicated that he was told that the store wanted to have him deported because of the ‘evidence’ he had.”

The judge didn’t believe Joseph’s claim “that the store was involved in several nefarious meat operations, which he described as causing a ‘public health hazard,’ including selling unsaleable meat to local restaurants and takeouts for a significantly reduced price.”

Joseph testified that he knew the store was full of hidden cameras and “that he had no intent to deceive anyone or to steal anything.”

He “conceded that he knew that what he was doing was against store policy, but claimed that he had permission to do so,” said the decision.

The judge wasn’t convinced.

“The combination of Mr. Penney’s evidence, the video recordings, and the receipts, establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Joseph participated fully in an ongoing program of repackaging meat with false price stickers that resulted in the price of the meat being significantly reduced,” Gorman said.

“Mr. Joseph was not taking the meat out of the garbage or from some area in which meat that had passed its best before date was stored. He was getting it from the store’s freezer and off the store’s shelves. This meat was available for sale and that meat, which was price manipulated by Mr. Joseph, did not have a sale stamp on it before Mr. Joseph reduced its price. In other words, the store had not decided that the meat was unsaleable.”