A 34-year-old employee at London Drugs was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing nearly $2 million worth of merchandise from the company over five years.

Carlos Santos pleaded guilty to stealing laptops and other expensive electronics from the company's distribution center in Richmond, British Columbia, and reselling the items online.

Sales made by Santos generated profits estimated between $750,000 to $1 million before his arrest, according to a sentencing decision from the British Columbia Provincial Court issued last month but released online on Monday.

Judge Nancy Phillips described the thefts as "uncomplicated," noting that the plan involved nothing more than Santos removing laptops from their boxes and hiding them under his shirt before heading to the staff locker room where he placed them in his backpack and left with the loot at the end of his shift.

Mr. Santos, for example, did not create false records or engage in any other form of manipulation other than the simple process of placing the items in a personal hidden location, putting them in a bag, recycling the packaging, leaving the item at the end of the shift, and posting it on a social media site for resale," the judge noted.

"Of course, the difference here is that the quantitative or economic loss to London Drugs is significantly larger."

The thefts began in February 2017, just four months after Santos was hired by the company, and continued until he was arrested in January 2022.

During that time, Santos stole nearly 245 items, including 52 items he took while under the company's surveillance, in what the judge characterized as a "stunning" and "clearly deliberate" scheme.

"A retaliatory act"

Santos, who had no prior criminal record, confessed to the police that he began stealing from London Drugs "as a kind of retaliation against his employer" because he was "dissatisfied with the company, its pay, and its pace of work," as summarized by the judge in the sentencing decision on July 19.

The judge noted that "I was told that Mr. Santos spent the money mainly to fund his lifestyle and do things like pay bills, buy medication for his family, and make online purchases."

The investigative director at London Drugs provided a victim impact statement to the court, detailing the hundreds of investigative hours spent solving the crimes.

Santos first came to the company's attention when a supervisor saw him hiding a laptop under his shirt, prompting investigators to conduct surveillance on the employee. "During the surveillance, Mr. Santos stole items worth about $100,000," according to the court.

Santos cooperated with the police and the company's investigators, providing a detailed report of everything he stole and the approximate resale value of each item. The judge noted that he also turned over 13 unsold stolen items to the police during the investigations.

In addition to the two-year prison sentence, the court ordered Santos to provide a DNA sample to the court and to pay $750,000 in restitution to the company.