More shoppers are stealing from supermarkets by putting loose avocados and other expensive fruit and veg through self-service tills and weighing them as loose carrots, and other cheap veg.

The easy theft was first noted in Australia where some shoppers were apparently buying 18 kilos of carrots in a single visit and self-service tills were recording sales of more carrots than the store ever had in stock.

Store managements are also aware that shoppers using self-service tills switch labels on items, as well as simply putting items in their trolley that they haven’t passed through the till. This last theft type was successful for likeable celebrity chef Anthony Worrall Thompson in Tesco in Henley-on Thames in 2012, until he was filmed stealing wines and cheese on a number of separate visits and was arrested and cautioned by police.