One in five supermarket customers admit to stealing from self-service checkouts, costing UK retailers over £1.6 billion every year according to a survey conducted by a voucher codes website.
The report says that UK customers steal an average of £15-worth of fruit and veg, bakery goods, sweets and toiletries per month.

The biggest reason given for stealing from the checkouts was that items did not scan. George Charles, spokesman for www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, said: "I'm sure most of those who now admit to stealing via self-service checkouts didn't initially set out to do so – they may have forgotten to scan something and quickly realised how easy it could be to take items without scanning them.

"No doubt there's an element of risk involved, but when people start stealing it can be difficult to stop - that is until you get caught -particularly when money might be tight.

"The poll showed that more than £1 billion is stolen through self-scan checkouts each year, which is just not acceptable.

"Supermarkets need to increase the number of staff who monitor the self-scan checkouts, even though the point of these checkouts is to reduce the need for staff, as well as increase their security measures to ensure this comes to an end. It's not worth getting into trouble with the police over the matter of a few pieces of fruit and veg."