Met Police chief backs Morrisons worker sacked for tackling shoplifter

The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has backed a Morrisons store manager who was sacked for tackling a serial shoplifter who assaulted him.

Brave Sean Egan, who had worked for the retailer for nearly three decades, tackled career criminal Daniel Kendall, 36, in a bid to stop him stealing from the store, which at the time he viewed as ‘his business’ and ‘family’. 

The married father, 46, tried to follow company protocol by dealing with the serial shoplifter who was notorious among local shopkeepers, but Kendall became increasingly aggressive and spat in his face on three separate occasions. 

And despite being a loyal and long-time employee, and the thug being jailed for his crime spree around the West Midlands area, including the Morrisons incident, he was sacked for not following the firm’s deter-and-not-detain policy.

His sacking has sparked fury among the public amid calls for the former manager to be reinstated in his role. 

Today Met Chief Sir Mark Rowley said he ‘completely’ backs Mr Egan and has been left ‘bewildered’ by his sacking.

He told Good Morning Britain: ‘I am bewildered by the case. Maybe there is something sensitive behind it that none of us knows.

‘But on the surface, if a store manager or shopkeeper, if they feel able to intervene, and they feel they can do that safely, we always want people to do that.

‘We want the public to be part of the fight against crime.

He was tackled by worker Sean Egan (pictured), who had worked for the company for nearly 30 years, as he tried to make off with the stolen goods 

Daniel Kendall, 36, from Walsall, West Midlands, targeted a branch of the chain supermarket in nearby Aldridge on December 3 last year

‘The act of [a] citizen is important. Policing isn’t just about policing. Keeping communities safe is about all of our responsibilities.’ 

Sir Mark added he is ‘surprised’ retail workers are not supported by their employers if they feel ‘able’ to intervene to prevent crime.

‘I can understand a retailer that doesn’t want to encourage its employees to get into physical confrontations when they’re not equipped and trained to do it.

‘But if someone feels physically, ‘I am able to do this’, I’d be surprised why a retailer wouldn’t support them.’

Meanwhile, in the wake of losing his job, Mr Egan revealed he had been in a ‘spiral of depression’. 

‘My state of mind, I have been in a spiral of depression, been in counselling, medicated,’ he told GMB.

‘The support I have had from the doctor has been fantastic, and ultimately the support I have had from my family has been amazing.’ 

He added: ‘I did class Morrisons as my family, but they have been unsupportive throughout.’  

‘It is the only job I have ever had my entire life, it is all I have known, and to be out of work and to be in a situation of uncertainty… when I applied for Morrisons, it was just a simple 15/20-minute interview, that’s not the world we live in now.’

Meanwhile, the married father revealed that even though he was still out of work, the thought of working in a supermarket had left a ‘sour taste’. He added: ‘But I have also got to provide for my family. I will do whatever I need to do, but I want to be at work.’

‘The trouble is, it has been an absolute back hole of my life so far, and it is stopping me from doing what I want to do. I was 17 when I started at Morrisons. I have a lot to offer, not just in retail, I have a lot of life skills I can give.’

Speaking of the altercation, he described Kendall as being ‘as strong as a bear’ and also expressed concerns that he was ‘under the influence of drugs’ at the time. 

‘I didn’t ask him to spit on me, he spat at me, and yes, I did react, and that was in the disciplinary,’ he said. 

‘I didn’t deny it’s in the footage. But I didn’t ask to be spat at, and I didn’t ask to be verbally assaulted. I didn’t ask for him to verbally assault the other people around, as in the other managers, including a female manager who was there at the time.

He added: ‘He was verbally aggressive and was out to cause trouble.’

Wendy Morton, the MP for Aldridge-Brownhills near Walsall, West Midlands, wrote a letter to the chief executive of the supermarket, which she posted on social media, saying her constituents consider Mr Egan a hero. 

She said in her letter to the company’s chief Rami Baitieh: ‘Throughout my tenure as the Member of Parliament for Aldridge-Brownhills I have worked with Sean on a number of occasions, and I have always found him to be diligent and most pleasant.

‘I was therefore shocked to learn that he had been dismissed for apprehending a shoplifter.

‘Sean has been a loyal employee of your company for some two decades, and I believe Morrisons should rethink this position, and re-instate him to his former position forthwith.

‘I believe it is incumbent upon retailers to support their staff when taking a stand against criminal activity and not to punish them in such manner.’

Mr Egan also insisted the store’s founder, Ken Morrison, would have told him ‘well done, son’, for protecting the store and its interests. 

Of the two times he met the Morrisons founder, Mr Egan said: ‘He was amazing and he inspired me. And then I met him again several years later and I was a senior manager a store and he remembered me by name.

‘It’s something that I will never forget, and the ethos of family business is not where we are now, but it’s something I will never forget.’

Mr Egan has since been sacked at a disciplinary hearing for not following the firm’s deter-and-not-detain policy when he intervened 

It comes after the Daily Mail exclusively revealed the identity of career criminal, Daniel Kendall, who cost the dedicated Morrisons’ employee his job. 

His long rap sheet has seen him notch up at least 40 previous convictions over the years.

Kendall was jailed for 42 weeks at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court in December over the Morrisons theft as well as several other petty crimes.

They included the theft of chocolate and coffee worth £90 from a Co-op supermarket store in Birmingham – and theft of £390 in cash from an ATM in Walsall.

Prior to these latest brushes with the law, Kendall was previously jailed for 30 weeks in 2018 for attempting to break into a police officer’s home in the middle of the night in nearby Pelsall.

The court heard how PC Jason Dooley became suspicious when his dogs suddenly began barking in the middle of the night.

The officer looked out his bedroom window to see Kendall trying the handle of his car and porch.

Concerned for his wife Emily, as well as his three-year-old daughter sleeping in the next room, Mr Dooley quickly went outside to apprehend the criminal himself.

With the help of a neighbour, Philip Green, he detained Kendall until police arrived – and both later received awards for their bravery.

Officers found the thief with two previously stolen laptops and six mobile phones.

‘I’ve never seen anything like it in all my years of policing,’ Mr Dooley told the Express and Star at the time.

‘But as I ran at the guy and grabbed him, he was wearing headphones. He started to struggle when he realised and was effing and blinding.

‘He was trying to get up and fight.’

Mr Dooley had worked for West Midlands Police for around 30 years at the time – and the incident marked the 24th off-duty arrest of his career.

He praised Mr Green, whose father is a retired policeman, who worked for Staffordshire Police, for assisting him with ‘no hesitation’.

Kendall also previously stole two yoghurt pots, worth a total of £2.58 from a Euro Garages petrol station in Walsall on February 27, 2019, and assaulted a shop worker.

He was jailed for ten weeks and ordered to pay £115 in compensation.

Later that year, on September 13, Kendall attempted another series of thefts, first targeting a Bargain Buys store in nearby Bloxwich.

He began filling a carrier bag with washing powder containers, with the female manager of the budget shop soon bravely trying to stop him, a court heard.

Kendall (pictured) has now been sentenced to 46 weeks in prison over the incident. But the Daily Mail can reveal he is already a serial petty criminal

Prosecutor Raj Punia said during the struggle, the staff member was pushed against some shelving before he finally dropped the bag.

As she emptied out its contents, he warned her he had a knife, which turned out to be half a pair of scissors he used to cut heroin – before swiftly fleeing.

Kendall then went on to steal £102 worth of cosmetics from a Lloyds Pharmacy store later that same day – but was arrested for both crimes on September 28.

Aimee Parkes, defending, said: ‘He is genuinely sorry for his actions and knows that if this pattern of offending continues, his sentences will just get longer and longer.’

He admitted attempted robbery and shoplifting and was jailed.

Judge James Burbridge QC told him: ‘You have been a public menace because of your addiction.

‘Shopkeepers and those who work in shops need to be protected by the court.’

A Morrisons spokesperson previously said: ‘While we cannot comment on individual cases, we are confident that this matter was investigated thoroughly and that the correct process was followed. The subsequent reporting does not reflect the full facts of the situation.

‘We are continuing to take wide-ranging action to address the threat of shoplifting or violence in our stores.

‘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.’