Woolies fires 540 for stealing

More than 500 Woolworths staff were sacked last year for stealing from their own shops.

The statistic was revealed at a conference by chairman Gerald Corbett, formerly of Railtrack.

A spokesman said the company was shocked because staff are told very clearly what will happen if they are caught thieving.

Nicole Lander, of Woolworths, said: "The 540 people who were sacked last year were caught in a variety of ways. But many of them were caught red-handed on in-store CCTV.

"We make our policy very clear to staff at the outset that we have very strict rules. We tell them 'you don't take things that don't belong to you.'

"We are concerned at this problem. But we are hoping new measures that we have put into force will reduce the numbers next year."

Ms Lander added: "In common with all other retailers, consumption or removal of property is considered gross misconduct and as a result people are dismissed immediately. Some of the incidents involving stealing have been severe and some not so severe."

Two middle-aged women who had worked for the store for 10 years were sacked last year after being filmed helping themselves to chocolates in a storeroom.

Three years ago a woman who had worked for Woolworths for 24 years - 22 of them on the sweet counter - was fired when she took a sweet. Two years before that, a pair of shop girls were sacked for eating a couple of 2p sweets that had fallen on the floor and were about to be thrown away.