A supermarket manager who worked his whole life at Morrisons but was fired after tackling a shoplifter says he is ‘barely surviving’ four months after being dismissed.
Sean Egan, 46, intervened during an ‘abusive’ altercation with a prolific shoplifter trying 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 he was 17, was sacked at a disciplinary hearing for not following the company’s deter-and-not-detain policy.
Mr Egan, who lives in Wolverhampton, has now revealed that he and his family are struggling to ‘survive’, with his last pay cheque coming through in January.
The father added that it has been difficult to move forward from the dismissal after being so invested in his work, having been at Morrisons for nearly three decades.
Mr Egan told BBC News: ‘I’ve given so much to a business where I’ve actually lived for work… but in that moment I felt like everything I had given was attacked.’
Typical policy would see Mr Egan escort a shoplifter off the premises, but the store manager said the thief had become ‘aggressive’ and was spitting on him.
He said it was his ‘instant reaction’ to fling his arm back. He said he then grabbed the shoplifter’s own arm to stop him reaching into his bag, which led to the altercation.
Sean Egan, 46, has worked his entire life at Morrisons but was fired after tackling a shoplifter
Sean Egan intervened during an ‘abusive’ altercation with a prolific shoplifter in December
Sean Egan, who lives in Wolverhampton, takes part in charitable work for a children’s hospital
Mr Egan continued: ‘My thought is, ‘I’ve got to stop this guy. I don’t know what he’s going to do, not only to me, but anybody else’.’
He told how he felt pressure not to lose money and protect the store’s products. Mr Egan said he called police called but was still investigated by the company.
A Morrisons spokesman said: ‘We are continuing to take wide ranging action to address the threat of shoplifting or violence in our stores.
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‘The health and safety of all colleagues and customers is of paramount importance to Morrisons. We have very clear guidance, procedures and controls in place to protect our colleagues and customers from the risk of harm, which must be strictly followed.
‘These include detailed procedures for handling shoplifting incidents, which are in place to protect both the colleague involved and surrounding colleagues and customers, and which seek to de-escalate and calmly control the situation. We will not ask colleagues to put themselves at risk.
‘As a responsible employer, our focus is entirely on taking the correct action to ensure health and safety is maintained at all times.’
It comes after Waitrose shop assistant Walker Smith, who had been employed by the chain for 17 years, revealed earlier this month that he was sacked for tackling an Easter egg thief.
Mr Smith was fired days after confronting a ‘repeat offender’ who had filled a bag with eggs at the branch in Clapham Junction, South West London.
The 54-year-old grabbed the bag from the thief, sparking a tug-of-war and the £13 bag of Lindt eggs to spill on to the floor.
Waitrose has a strict policy that staff should not confront shoplifters and Mr Smith was sacked a few days later.
Waitrose defended its decision, claiming there is a ‘serious danger to life’ in tackling thieves and its staff policies must be ‘strictly followed’ – but the chain faced a furious backlash over the decision.
Last week, a study revealed shoplifting offences reported to police in England and Wales have more than doubled in five years – but just one in five are resulting in a charge.
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 analysed by the Liberal Democrats .
But just 19.8 per cent of offences in 2024/25 resulted in a charge being made – with the worst rate coming from the Metropolitan Police, which was only 6.5 per cent.
Chief Inspector Rav Pathania, the Met Police’s lead for tackling retail crime, insisted last week that shoplifters are escaping justice because storekeepers are refusing to hand over CCTV .
He claimed that if retail managers released more footage of offences then officers would be able to clamp down on crime – saying that the force never got CCTV for 80 per cent of crimes last year.
Mr Pathania added that in cases where shopkeepers did pass on footage, police could identify 80 per cent of suspects by running the images through databases of known offenders.
A Marks & Spencer store in Clapham was overrun by looting teenagers earlier this month
Video footage showing prolific criminal Liam Hutchinson stealing from a Boots store
Meanwhile the Iceland executive chairman claimed earlier this month that security guards in shops should carry pepper spray and truncheons to tackle retail crime.
Lord Walker of Broxton, who is also the Government’s cost-of-living tsar, said that ‘just one incident of violence against my staff is too many’ as he pointed to the example of armed Spanish security guards, saying they ‘don’t mess about’.
It comes after Marks and Spencer’s retail director, Thinus Keeve, claimed its customer-facing staff were being subjected to violence and abuse every day, and called for the Government and London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan to crack down on crime.
Mr Keeve spoke out after unrest involving one of the retail giant’s stores in Clapham, which saw hundreds of youths swarm high street shops as part of an online trend.
Meanwhile Costa Coffee has hired security guards at around ten stores facing repeated incidents of shoplifting in a bid to prevent its food and drinks being stolen.
A survey of 1,000 customer-facing workers in the UK by the Institute of Customer Service found around 43 per cent of frontline staff had experienced hostility or abuse from customers in the past six months, up from 36 per cent the previous year.
The Crime and Policing Bill, once passed, will make the assault of a retail worker an offence.
The Bill has cleared both the Commons and Lords, but is going through a ‘tidying up process’ between the two Houses of Parliament, which must agree on a final draft for the statute books. It returned to the Lords for further consideration today.
The latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures available show shoplifting offences increased in England and Wales in the year to September, but remained slightly below record levels seen in the 12 months to March 2025.
There were 519,381 shoplifting offences in the year to September 2025, up 5 per cent from 492,660 the previous year. A total of 530,439 offences were recorded in the year to March 2025.
