Thousands of dollars worth of meat stolen from supermarket

Supermarket thieves have been caught on camera stealing expensive cuts of meat and hiding it in their clothes in brazen daylight robberies.

The shoplifters were captured on CCTV stuffing the meat products down their pants, inside their jumpers or just walking out with entire trolley loads.

It is part of an industry-wide epidemic which has seen thousands of dollars worth of meat taken from Coles, Woolworths and IGA, the Daily Telegraph reports.

In one instance, a 49-year-old man (pictured) stole $1454 worth of meat from Coles and Woolworths

In one instance a man walked out of a Coles supermarket in Tweed Heads, on the NSW coast, with a trolley full of meat before heading over to Woolworths and stealing more, leaving with $1454 worth of meat product.

The 49-year-old man is due to face court next month for three counts of shoplifting after he also allegedly stole $82 worth of deli meat the previous year.

Meat theft has become such a problem for the national supermarket chains that they have employed extra security to combat the thieves. 

Coles has even started adding security tags to their meat products to reduce the theft.

It is part of an industry-wide epidemic which has seen thousands of dollars worth of meat taken from Coles, Woolworths and IGA, the Daily Telegraph reports

Meat theft has become such a problem for the national supermarket chains that they have employed extra security to combat the thieves

Security expert Sebastian Brown from Retail Crime Prevention Australia told publication that some IGA stores have resorted to placing surveillance cameras directly over their meat sections.

‘The price of meat is expensive. People on low incomes can’t afford it and some thieves are making a business out of it by reselling on the black market,’ he said.

Australian meat has skyrocketed in price in recent years – with beef eye fillets costing up to $43 a kilo in some supermarkets.