Sainsbury’s employee of 15 years was sacked for tackling ‘aggressive’ Champagne thief on the identical day he carried out CPR on the shop’s solely safety guard

A Sainsbury’s worker has been sacked for tackling an ‘aggressive’ Champagne thief on the same day he performed CPR on the shop’s only security guard.

Gary MacArthur, from Bromley, worked at the store in West Wickham, south-east London, for 15 years but was fired in March for gross misconduct for failing to follow Sainsbury’s guidance on ‘prevent[ing] incidents’.

In his dismissal letter, supermarket bosses told him he should have acted merely as a ‘visual deterrent’ even though the thief hurled glass bottles at his colleagues.

The worker, who had previously lost teeth after being punched by a thief at the shop,  tackled a repeat offender and dragged him from the store.

He then opened the shoplifter’s bag to find it containing multiple bottles of alcohol thought to have been stolen from a neighbouring shop. 

The fracas took place an hour after Mr MacArthur’s shift was supposed to have ended. 

Earlier that day Mr MacArthur performed CPR on the shop’s security guard and called him an ambulance after he suffered a suspected stroke. 

He then stayed at work late to help the all-female team feel safer in the evening. 

The worker mounted an unsuccessful appeal to keep his job and admitted he has been devastated since losing it.

He told LBC: ‘The job was my life, really. I don’t have much.

‘The friends that I do have are generally my work colleagues. I’ve got a couple of people who are really close to me. Apart from that I’ve got five fish tanks and two snakes, and that’s pretty much me.’ 

He also bemoaned the lack of ‘civic duty’ in the country and the general indifference felt towards shoplifters.

Mr MacArthur is understood to have received a written warning in August and been given extra training on the supermarket’s policy after challenging a shoplifter.

But he admitted he ‘can’t let it go’ when he witnesses people stealing. 

He confronted the latest shoplifter when his female colleagues screamed that there was an ‘aggressive Champagne thief’.

The thief is known locally for nicking bottles of Moët, Bollinger and Veuve Clicquot and has targeted the same branch repeatedly.

He is said to have a reputation for being aggressive to women and Mr MacArthur grabbed him and physically escorted him out of the shop. 

The shoplifter later re-entered the store and then started smashing bottles before throwing two at colleagues.

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: ‘We are seeing incidents of violence, aggression and theft happening in our stores on a daily basis, threatening the safety of colleagues and customers.

‘We are responding by investing in extra security measures, ensuring addressing this issue remains a Government priority and sharing intelligence with police forces around the country, not asking our colleagues to put their safety on the line by tackling offenders.

‘That’s why our guidance to colleagues on responding to retail crime prioritises keeping everyone in our stores safe and is specifically designed to prevent incidents from escalating.’

Mr MacArthur’s sacking is the latest in a string of supermarket workers to be dismissed for tackling thieves. 

Walker Smith, who worked at Waitrose in Clapham Junction for 17 years, claimed he was fired by the retailer two days after he confronted the ‘repeat offender’ shoplifter when a customer told him someone had filled their bag with Easter eggs.  

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp wrote the supermarket, claiming the case reflected a ‘wider and growing problem’ of offenders acting ‘brazenly and with little fear of consequence’ and suggested Mr Smith should be given back his job with a bonus for ‘bravery and initiative’. 

Meanwhile, Sean Egan was fired from Morrisons after 29 years at the Aldridge branch when he intervened during an ‘abusive’ altercation with a prolific thief.

And an Asda supermarket worker who confronted a shoplifter was sacked after 25 years’ loyal service for trying to prevent him from getting away.

Gavin Ramsay, 49, worked as a porter collecting trolleys and shopping baskets at the Asda supermarket in South Shields when he saw a group of rowdy young people emerge from the store with bottles of alcohol they had stolen.

He was dismissed for gross misconduct two weeks after the incident for not adhering to the retailer’s policy that staff should not physically challenge shoplifters.