After 29 years of loyalty I was sacked from Morrisons for trying to stop a prolific shoplifter… he was then jailed for multiple offences

A Morrisons manager who was sacked for tackling a shoplifter after being loyal to the firm for almost three decades has spoken out in a fiery online post.

Sean Egan, 46, has revealed that the ‘abusive’ and ‘prolific’ shoplifter who spat at him in the West Midlands store has been jailed for 46 weeks for multiple offences.

Mr Egan initially took a calm approach to company protocol in dealing with the shoplifter at his store in Aldridge, near Walsall in the West Midlands, last December.

But when the thief became ‘aggressive’ and started spitting at him, the Wolverhampton father ‘reacted like a human being, not like a store manager’.

He threw his arm back and held the thief’s arm to prevent him from reaching into his bag, which led to an argument.

She said the thought behind her actions was that she had to ‘stop this man’, adding: ‘I don’t know what he will do not only to me but to others.’

He also described how he felt pressured to avoid losing company money and to protect the store’s products.

Mr Egan said he called the police to report the theft but it was still being investigated by the company, which he ‘did everything he could’.

But the loyal employee, who had worked for Morrisons since the age of 17, was sacked at a disciplinary hearing for failing to comply with the company’s policy of deterrence and non-arrest.

Sean Egan, who lives in Wolverhampton with his family, is involved in charity work at a children’s hospital

In a lengthy post on LinkedIn, Mr Egan said: ‘The individual involved was subsequently sentenced to 46 weeks in prison for multiple offences. But the truth is, I still experience the consequences every day.’

He said: ‘I have been unemployed for the last 4.5 months. I couldn’t buy a Christmas present for my children. I had a hard time keeping up with the bills. ‘I’m dealing with paralyzing anxiety and a real sense of worthlessness.’

When others reached out to her with similar stories, the former Morrisons worker took it upon herself to ‘make sure these voices are heard’ and wanted to ‘be open about what happened’ during the independent incident.

Mr Egan said: ‘Like many shops we were frequently faced with theft, especially during the Christmas peak period.

‘In this case the person in question was a well-known, prolific criminal in the area.

‘I followed company policy, approached him calmly, offered assistance and escorted him from the store when needed.

‘But as we approached the exit I was spat at.

‘I reacted at that moment. Not as a manager. As a human.

‘That split second changed everything.’

Mr Egan previously told the BBC his ‘instant reaction’ was to throw his arm back when the burglar became ‘aggressive’ and started spitting at him.

The fallout left the father, who turned a number of underperforming stores into some of the West Midlands’ most profitable branches, broke just three weeks before Christmas.

‘I don’t think people understand what this really does to someone,’ he said: ‘Just 3 weeks before Christmas… I was asking myself a question… How do I give my kids the Christmas they deserve?

‘I joined the Morrisons when I was 17. This wasn’t just a job. This was my identity. My life. My purpose. 29 years of loyalty. And now… he’s gone.

‘Not only did I lose my career, I’ve never felt more unheard, unseen and expendable in my entire life.’

Mr Egan previously told the BBC his ‘instant reaction’ was to throw his arm back after the burglar became ‘aggressive’ and started spitting at him.

He said that ‘the thing that hurts the most’ was that thirty years of his life ‘just passed by’.

The reason for the emotional social media post was to ensure others understood the ‘real human impact behind decisions like these’.

Mr Egan said he was investigated and disciplined by Morrisons, the consequences of which he appealed.

‘But what I didn’t feel at any stage was support. I was even told early on that “you’ll probably lose your job because of this.” And that’s it,” he wrote.

He has been unemployed for the past four and a half months, struggling to pay his bills and experiencing ‘crippling anxiety and a real sense of worthlessness’.

Even the ‘chance to rebuild’ he was given through a job offer as store manager at Aldi was taken away due to ‘inconsistency’ with the end date of his job at Morrisons.

‘Since then I’ve been asking myself the question: what happens now? Because I am not the sum of a moment,’ he wrote in his enthusiastic post:

Describing himself as a store manager who has ‘managed and transformed multiple stores’ and ‘a leader who develops teams and future managers’, Mr Egan said he would welcome help finding a new job in the same role elsewhere.

‘Because sometimes all someone needs is an opportunity to rebuild,’ he said, adding: ‘This was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to share. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read.’

A Morrisons spokesman said yesterday: ‘We continue to take extensive action to address the threat of theft or violence in our stores.

‘The health and safety of all colleagues and customers is of the utmost importance to Morrisons. We have very clear guidelines, procedures and controls that must be strictly followed to protect our colleagues and clients from the risk of harm.

‘These include detailed procedures for handling incidents of theft, which are in place to protect both the colleague involved and surrounding colleagues and customers, and aim to calmly control the situation and reduce tension. We will not ask our colleagues to put themselves at risk.

‘As a responsible employer, our focus is on taking exactly the right action to ensure health and safety is protected at all times.’

It comes after Waitrose store assistant Walker Smith, who has worked at the chain for 17 years, revealed he had been sacked for dealing with an Easter egg thief earlier this month.

Mr Smith was sacked days after he was confronted by the ‘repeat offender’ stuffing a bag of eggs at the branch in Clapham Junction, South West London.

The 54-year-old man snatched the bag from the thief, a scuffle flared and the £13 bag of Lindt eggs spilled onto the floor.

Waitrose has a strict policy against staff not confronting shoplifters and Mr Smith was sacked a few days later.

Waitrose defended its decision, arguing that there was a “serious danger to life” in dealing with thieves and that staff policies must be “strictly adhered to”; however, the chain faced fierce backlash over the decision.

A study last week found that burglary crimes reported to police in England and Wales have more than doubled in five years; but only one in five results in criminal charges.

Total thefts rose by 133 per cent from 228,128 in 2020/21 to 530,457 in 2024/25, according to House of Commons Library data analyzed by the Liberal Democrats.

However, only 19.8 per cent of offenses in 2024/25 resulted in a charge; the worst rate came from the Metropolitan Police at just 6.5 per cent.

Chief Inspector Rav Pathania, the Met Police’s retail crime lead, last week insisted shoplifters had escaped justice because shop owners refused to hand over CCTV.

He said the force had no CCTV for 80 per cent of crimes last year, claiming officers could control crime if retail managers released more footage of crimes.

Mr Pathania added that in cases where shopkeepers pass on images, police can identify 80 per cent of suspects by examining the images against databases of known criminals.

Meanwhile, Iceland’s chief executive claimed earlier this month that security guards in stores should be carrying pepper spray and batons to combat retail crime.

Lord Walker of Broxton, who is also the government’s bread-and-butter czar, cited armed Spanish security guards as an example, saying that ‘they don’t cause any trouble’ and that ‘even one incident of violence against my staff is too many’.

It comes after Marks and Spencer’s retail manager Thinus Keeve claimed customer-facing staff were subjected to violence and abuse on a daily basis and called on the Government and London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan to tackle crime.

Mr Keeve spoke following unrest at one of the retail giant’s stores in Clapham, which saw hundreds of young people flocking to high street stores as part of an online trend.

Meanwhile, Costa Coffee has hired security guards at around ten stores that face constant incidents of theft in a bid to prevent food and beverages from being stolen.

A survey of 1,000 customer-facing workers by the Customer Service Institute in the UK found that around 43 per cent of frontline staff had experienced hostility or harassment from customers in the past six months; This rate increased to 36 percent compared to the previous year.

When passed, the Crime and Policing Bill will make it an offense to assault a retail worker.

The bill has been approved in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords but is going through a ‘regulatory process’ between the two Houses of Parliament, where a final draft on the statute books must be agreed. It returned to the Lords today for further consideration.

The latest available figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that burglary crimes in England and Wales increased through September, but remained slightly below the record levels seen in the 12 months to March 2025.

By September 2025, the number of theft crimes, which was 492,660 last year, was 519,381, an increase of 5 percent compared to the previous year. A total of 530,439 crimes were recorded during the year to March 2025.