A former employee of a Mission gun shop has been convicted of misappropriating $36,000 from the business in 2015.
Tyson Christopher Gamberg of Abbotsford was convicted March 12 in Abbotsford provincial court of theft over $5,000. He was acquitted of a second charge of fraud over $5,000.
Court documents indicate that Gamberg was employed as a shipper at High Calibre Services Corp. on First Avenue in Mission from June 2014 to November 2015.
The business sells firearms, accessories and ammunition both in store and online.
Gamberg also handled online sales, and most often worked alone and unsupervised, according to the documents.
As part of his duties, he was given a four-digit code to process refunds. The refunds were done using either a stationary or a remote electronic payment processing terminal.
The remote terminal was wireless and could be operated in other areas of the store. The court documents state that Gamberg would often take the remote terminal and keep it at his work space in the shipping area.
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Elavon Inc., a company that processes and monitors credit card and debit transactions for High Calibre, noticed several suspicious refunds from the store in November 2015.
“These refunds were suspicious because they were refunds that did not match to previous sales,” the documents state.
Through further investigation, Elavon associated the suspicious refunds to Gamberg’s credit and debit cards and found a total of 150 questionable transactions between the two cards, all in the first three months of 2015.
Another 22 illegitimate refunds were later found between the two accounts for a total of 172 transactions amounting to $36,000 in misappropriated funds, the court documents state.
Gamberg quit his job on Nov. 19, 2015, after he was confronted by his boss, and later notified bank officials and the police, saying he was concerned that someone else had been using his credit and debit accounts.
Gamberg testified at his trial that he was not aware of the fraudulent refunds from High Calibre going into his two bank accounts and that he was not responsible for processing them.
But Judge Gregory Brown said Gamberg was not credible on the witness stand.
“ … it is Mr. Gamberg who has both the motive and opportunity to process the 172 illegitimate refunds at High Calibre,” he said.
“I conclude that the only reasonable inference is that Mr. Gamberg was responsible for the illegitimate refunds going into his two bank accounts.”
Gamberg’s sentencing hearing has been scheduled for May 6 in Abbotsford.