Morrisons manager who worked for the supermarket for 29 years is sacked for tackling an ‘abusive’ shoplifter – and left penniless

A supermarket manager who worked at Morrisons all his life but was sacked after tackling a shoplifter says he is ‘barely surviving’ four months after being made redundant.

Sean Egan, 46, intervened during a ‘malicious’ altercation with a prolific shoplifter who tried to leave his store in Aldridge, near Walsall in the West Midlands, with stolen goods last December.

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.

Mr Egan, who lives in Wolverhampton, said he and his family were struggling to ‘survive’ and his last paycheck would arrive in January.

The father added that it was difficult to move on from redundancy after being so focused on his job after working at Morrisons for nearly three decades.

Mr Egan said BBC News: ‘I gave so much to a job that I actually lived to work for… but at that moment I felt like everything I had given was being attacked.’

Typical policy was for Mr Egan to escort a shoplifter off the premises but the shop manager said the shop manager became ‘aggressive’ and spat at him.

He said it was his ‘instant reaction’ to throw his arm back. She said she then grabbed her own arm to prevent the thief from reaching into her purse, which led to an argument.

Sean Egan intervened during a ‘malicious’ argument with a prolific burglar in December

Wolverhampton-based Sean Egan is involved in charity work at a children’s hospital

Mr Egan continued: ‘My thought is: ‘I’ve got to stop this man. ‘I don’t know what he will do to everyone, not just me.’

He talked about how he felt pressured to not lose money and maintain the store’s products. Mr Egan said he called the police but was still being investigated by the company.

A Morrisons spokesman said: ‘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.

A Marks & Spencer store in Clapham was invaded by youths looting earlier this month

Video footage shows prolific criminal Liam Hutchinson shoplifting from a Boots store

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.