Self-styled Robin Hoods ‘steal from M&S to give to food banks’

Police are investigating after a group of self-styled Robin Hoods claimed they stole from Marks & Spencer (M&S) to give to food banks, The Telegraph can reveal.

Activists who targeted the shop said they now planned to steal from other supermarkets, which are already reeling from Britain’s shoplifting epidemic.

Campaigners from Everybody Eats, a group calling for direct action on food poverty – in a similar way to eco-protesters – bragged on social media about stealing from the M&S Foodhall in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, after launching their first raid at the weekend.

The activists said they would “keep replicating this all across the country” until the Government answered their demands on food security.

Shoplifting reached its highest level in two decades last year, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics released in January, which showed more than 402,000 offences were recorded in the year to September 2023.

According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), theft cost retailers almost £1.8 billion in 2022-23, up from £953 million the previous year.

The campaign by Everybody Eats threatens to put further pressure on retailers already struggling because of shoplifting, amid complaints over the police response to such incidents.

The group claimed that food banks were aware of where the stolen goods came from and suggested its members had been asked to help.

Everybody Eats posted a photograph of activists alongside five bags of food – including Percy Pig sweets – on X, formerly Twitter.

It added in a caption: “Today we took food from an M&S in Manchester without paying for it. The food will now be distributed straight to people in the community as well as local food banks.

“We cannot sit by as we and our friends, our families, our neighbours starve.”

Campaigners also filmed themselves walking gleefully into the M&S before bags with olive oil, bread, cereal, oat milk and other foodstuffs, according to a video posted on Instagram.

The footage also shows them walking out with baskets and then later unloading the goods. No security guards or shop assistants are seen intervening in the clip.

An activist in the video says: “What we do is we go into major supermarkets and liberate food essentials to distribute to food banks and those living in the area who are in food poverty.

“Supermarkets make huge profits off rising prices of essential items in this cost of living crisis. “

He then added: “A lot of their own staff are living in food poverty and use food banks. We’ve been asked by food banks for their help. It is the right thing to do, people are hungry in the land of plenty and I think that’s obscene.”

Some of the activists covered their faces on social media as they posed with Sainsbury’s bags but others proudly showed off the food while dressed in Robin Hood costumes. No one has been arrested.

Despite one of the group being seen holding up a bag of Percy Pig sweets in social media posts, Charlie Peterson, an activist who advises Everybody Eats, said only essential items were taken, such as simple foods, baby formula and sanitary products, which were handed out on the street and given to local food banks.

The 42-year-old told The Telegraph the food banks were aware that the items donated to them had been stolen.

“It’s not a case of being above the law. It is illegal. That is superseded by a desire to actually do some good and put some food on their tables,” he said.

Mr Peterson compared the work of Everybody Eats to the suffragettes, saying that activists sometimes have to work outside the law to bring about change.

He added: “If you spoke to the people that

took part in this action and said to them: ‘Do you think you should be operating outside of the law in order to try and help a hungry family be less hungry, and put food on their table?’ I think they will probably say yes.”

“I think you’d be foolish not to acknowledge that it is illegal, but the levels of people that we’re seeing, of people that are going hungry in this country at the moment - 13 years ago, there wasn’t a single food bank in this country. Now there’s more food banks than there’s ever been.”

‘Not a victimless crime’

Greater Manchester Police confirmed that a shoplifting incident was reported at 1.40pm on Sunday April 14 at a shop in the area.

The force is still investigating and urged anyone with information to contact officers.

Graham Wynn, assistant director of regulation at the BRC, said: “Stealing – however small – is not a victimless crime. The £1.8 billion a year lost to shop theft would be better spent investing in lower prices and better service for customers.

“Meanwhile, retailers are forced to spend a further £1.2 billion a year on anti-crime measures such as CCTV, security personnel and anti-theft devices.”

M&S did not respond to requests for comment.