Region one of the least dishonest at the tills

THE people of the North East have been praised for honesty – sort of – in a survey about stealing from supermarkets.

We’re near the bottom of a list of regions nicking from automatic checkouts.

But don’t be too hasty to congratulate yourselves – because we still swipe an average of £16 each every month.

That makes us 10th in a list of 12 regions in the UK.

And although it’s nothing to be proud of, it’s much better than most. The North West was the worst with an average £33 disappearing from tills.

The survey from VoucherCodesPro.uk revealed the average Brit steals £23 every month from self-service machines, adding up to £3.2bn a year nationally.

George Charles, spokesperson for VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, said temptation is proving too much. He said: “Selfservice checkouts are amazing. It’s great to see how far technology has come and, if you don’t want to have to deal with an overly cheerful sales assistant, they are a blessing. However, the issue is that without workers patrolling the area, it would seem people cannot be trusted to behave themselves.

“The amount stolen annually has skyrocketed since 2014, from £1.3 billion to over £3.2 billion.

“The economy may not be in top shape currently and money may be tight, but that is no excuse to start stealing your weekly shop instead of paying for it.”

The survey claims almost a quarter of Brits who took part in the survey admitted to stealing.

The biggest excuse was the machine not working which accounted for 62% of theft. Other excuses included “I knew I could get away with it” and “I forget to scan an item”.