A 91原创 mushroom warehouse has successfully sued a man who made off with tens of thousands of dollars worth of fungi over a three month period.
Justice John Harvey of the BC Supreme Court ordered Zhi Ping Guo to pay $36,417.68 for mushrooms surreptitiously loaded into his van from the Champ鈥檚 Mushrooms warehouse in 91原创.
Guo had an account to buy mushrooms from Champs and was frequently in the warehouse.
In late 2013, Champ鈥檚 manager Tri Quach learned that there were inventory shortages in the warehouse and began investigating, checking security video.
He found that Guo had been arriving at the warehouse very early in the morning before staff arrived, taking significant quantities of mushrooms.
On Nov. 6 of that year, Quach confronted Guo and called the RCMP. Guo would later plead guilty to theft, according to the judgment.
Champ鈥檚 originally said that close to $50,000 were taken over a three-month period.
Guo testified the thefts began after he became upset that he was not being supplied with the low-quality 鈥渟lice ends鈥� he had typically bought from Champ鈥檚.
He then began to load up his van with various mushrooms, reporting to the shipper at the warehouse that he had taken much less.
鈥淚t is clear that over the course of time, Mr. Guo was given free rein of the warehouse and loaded his van without assistance and/or oversight by either of the two shippers,鈥� Harvey wrote in his judgment. 鈥淪uch, no doubt, emboldened him to commence the admitted theft from the plaintiff.鈥�
While Guo had acknowledged stealing some mushrooms, the civil case devolved into wrangling over the exact value of the mushrooms taken.
Harvey noted that Quach was 鈥渃areless in the extreme鈥� when pricing out what mushrooms were missing, writing 鈥渋t would appear that the the prices 鈥榗harged Mr. Guo鈥� as damages were overstated.鈥�
In one case, mushrooms allegedly taken by Guo were valued at $43 a case, but they normally sell for $12 to $14 per case.
Due to the overstatement of prices, Harvey reduced Guo鈥檚 penalty by 20 per cent from that claimed by Champ鈥檚.
Guo also attempted to counter sue Quach and Champ鈥檚 for defamation 鈥� after Quach warned other mushroom distributors 鈥� and for infliction of emotional harm.
Harvey dismissed those claims for lack of evidence, also noting that Quach鈥檚 statements that Guo had stolen mushrooms were true.
