Morrisons manager who worked for store for 29 years sacked for tackling spitting shoplifter

Supermarket manager Sean Egan who was fired after tackling a shoplifter has said he is ‘barely surviving’.

Egan, who had worked for Morrisons for nearly 30 years, stopped a prolific thief as he tried to leave the branch in Aldridge, West Midlands, with stolen goods.

As Sean tried to escort the shoplifter off the premises, the thief started spitting on him. An altercation ensued before the police were called.

But the 46-year-old, who has worked for Morrisons since he was 17, was sacked because he did not follow the company’s deter-and-not-detain policy.

He told BBC News: ‘As the store manager, I put myself in a position to protect my staff and customers. There’s a lot of pressure in retail to protect the product, to not lose money, as you would in any business and I tried to do that.

‘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.’

During the altercation, the thief reached into his bag to grab an item, which Sean said prompted him to ‘instantly react’.

He said: ‘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”.’

Sean and his family are now ‘struggling to survive’ with his family and his last pay slip was received in January.

Morrisons said: ‘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.’

Shoplifting incidents rose 20% year-on-year to 2024, reaching the highest level since records began, according to official figures, and in 2025, soared another 5%.

And just 5.9% of thefts recorded led to a charge as of March 2025.

Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley placed the blame on shops, who told the Home Affairs Committee in February that shopkeepers need to ‘do better’.

He said: ‘We encourage them all to report it, and the good stores have got really good security regimes and report it and help us out in ways that I’ll come to in a moment. Some stores don’t.

‘Some of them don’t report anything, if we go there they don’t give us the CCTV of the crime, they won’t give us any statements, they don’t give their staff time to give statements, and they don’t pay their staff to go to court to give evidence.’

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