Money blog: Tesco apologises to 'humiliated' customer it accused of self-checkout scam (2025)

Here in Money, we're always on the lookout for ways to save you money, and if you're a budding tennis enthusiast, this one's for you.

Hundreds of parks, clubs and community centres are opening their doors for free tennis weekends.

So if you're playing for the first time or looking to rediscover an old passion, you're in luck.

How do I get involved?

Barclays Big Tennis Weekends see venues packed with coaching, games and competitions.

You can find one near you and book here.

All you need at most venues are trainers and some comfortable clothes - usually no racket set required! - but do double-check before going.

Iceland has opened the UK's first in-prison convenience store at the biggest prison in England, offering inmates the opportunity to gain work experience while aiding their rehabilitation.

The store is part of a new "marketplace" at HMP Oakwood, with inmates able to use Monopoly-style money earned through good behaviour to buy groceries such as Chicago Town pizzas and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Inmates can earn up to £25 a week in store credits through good behaviour, which can be used at the Iceland store.

HMP Oakwood is a Category C prison in Staffordshire. It's using the scheme as part of a broader initiative to help prisoners reintegrate into society by equipping them with essential skills for life after release.

As part of the programme, inmates nearing the end of their sentences can also gain employment within the store, with training provided in customer service and retail.

Our post about a customer left "humiliated" after Tesco staff accused him of scamming the self-checkouts has prompted many of you to get in touch with similar stories.

The supermarket chain told Money it was sorry about "how the matter was handled" (see 10.45am post).

In the interests of balance, we should say that supermarkets have been dealing with rocketing levels of shoplifting in recent years - we've covered the likes of Co-op and Asda taking ever more headline-grabbing measures to combat it.

Against this backdrop, Tesco is clearly on alert - but if your messages are anything to go by, there are times when a line is crossed...

Regarding the story about Tesco scan and pay. This is not a one off. This exact thing happened to me in the Kingston park store in Newcastle. I paid £280 for my shopping which showed on my bank as being taken - however the Tesco till did not print a receipt. The supervisor was so rude and they refused to let me leave with my trolley full of shopping. I refused to pay again as I had no money left in my account. I was forced to leave the store with no food for my children or my money. I had to return to the store the following day to get my money back.

SJT, Newcastle

This also happened to me at Tesco in Bridlington, on the scan and shop till also on 17th April. Security came out to me to say I had not paid. Took me over an hour to get my Tesco app back in my home town as they had not mentioned to me at the time it had been blocked.

Debster

Why do Tesco have shop and scan? When you get to the checkout an assistant comes to check that you're not a thief. Last week we had a full shopping check, every item rescanned - this was done with everyone looking on, making you feel guilty. After every item was found ok.

Brenda44

Is this not standard for Tesco? I have vivid memories of a trip to Tesco several years ago when I was accosted by a Tesco staff member who accused me of taking an item without paying for it and not apologising when I showed my receipt. Instead saying I must have scanned it twice.

AngusB

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Yes that happened to me in Swindon store!

Mera

My wife and I have stopped using the self-checkout system at Tesco for the same reason. We try not to use the store now at all.

Richard H

My transaction whenever I shop in Tesco always shows as pending on my bank app for a few days. Tesco staff should be aware of this and it's time the self-checkouts were demolished as they cause more trouble than they're worth due to incompetent staff!

Graham

Thousands without water in Devon are due £200 in compensation, a local MP has said.

Around 9,500 properties in the west of the county are still having issues, according to South West Water, two days on from a pipe bursting and disrupting supplies.

Fred Thomas, Labour MP for Plymouth Moor View, said on social media that he had spoken to SWW chief executive Susan Davy and "demanded a clear timeline".

He said he'd been told the pipe is now fixed and that SWW would "put £200 credit into the account of all household customers".

"Businesses will have bespoke compensation packages to be determined," he added.

An SWW spokeswoman said they were "carefully recharging the network to be able to fully restore supply".

"This is a large and complex system, and it needs to refill properly and safely before we can bring it fully back into supply," she added.

"That's why it may take a bit more time for all customers to see their water return."

Oasis fans have lost more than £2m to scams since tickets for the band's reunion tour went on sale, a major bank reports, in what a consumer group has described as a "perfect storm for criminals".

Findings from Lloyds Banking Group - which based its calculations on the volume of fraud reports made by its own customers - show:

• Oasis fans make up 56% of all reported concert ticket scams so far this year, according to the bank's data, losing £436 on average;
• The biggest amount lost in a single case was more than £1,700;
• People aged 35-44 are the most likely to be scammed, making up 30% of all cases;
• The bank found there had been more than 1,000 cases reported to it since tickets went on sale last summer.

Based on its own share of banking customers, Lloyds estimates there are likely to have been at least 5,000 victims nationwide since tickets went on sale last summer, with more than £2m lost to fraudsters.

Assume tickets are fake

Which? warns that, at this point, it's safest to assume any Oasis tickets advertised on social media are fake.

Lloyds said ticket scams often involved fake posts or listings on social media, offering tickets at discounted prices or access to sold-out events at an inflated cost.

Victims are asked to pay upfront for tickets, and scammers vanish after receiving the money.

Scams usually happen in two waves - the first when tickets are released, and again as the event date approaches.

The 'perfect storm'

Lisa Webb, consumer law expert at Which?, said Oasis tickets being in such high demand created a "perfect storm for criminals".

"Fans of the band have already been subject to potentially unlawful pricing practices by Ticketmaster, now they are being exposed to all sorts of fake adverts, posts and listings on social media where criminals are hoping to trick them into purchasing tickets that don't exist," she added.

"If you spot any suspicious posts, you can report them to the social media platform and the National Cyber Security Centre to investigate."

Lloyds tips to guard against scams

The bank advises:

• Stick to trusted retailers - buy tickets from reputable, official platforms and be cautious when dealing with third-party sellers;
• Take care on social media, as fraudsters can easily create fake ads, even using images of real tickets;
• Consider whether a "bargain" is too good to be true - if a ticket is being sold at an unusually low price or for a sold-out event, this is a red flag.

Households with large gardens or swimming pools should face higher water bills, a trade body has said.

Water UK, which represents water and sewage firms in England and Wales, is calling for water metering to be made compulsory as part of a reform to charging methods.

In comments first carried by the Financial Times, Water UK said it would tell the government-commissioned review that water companies should be able to roll out "block tariffs".

This way, the unit price of water would be higher at raised consumption levels.

If Water UK has its way, this would mean some households - such as those with large gardens - would pay more, while others would be charged less.

Right now, water meters are only compulsory in areas designated as "water-stressed" by the Environment Agency.

All customers pay a fixed standing charge, whether or not they are on meters, which Water UK wants abolished, the FT reports.

While metered customers are charged based on water use, others are charged according to their property's approximate annual rental value.

A Tesco customer has said he was left "angry","humiliated" and out of pocket nearly £80 after a technical glitch led multiple staff to accuse him of not paying for his shopping.

In a series of viral posts on X, Andrew Kennedy described the incident after he went to a Tesco store in Surrey on 18 April to buy groceries before visiting friends.

In summary, he said, Tesco "accused me of shoplifting, humiliated me in front of other people, wasted my time and forced me to be late for a reunion, your incompetence led to me card being blocked, [and] you took £75.92 from my bank account."

Here's how he says the incident unfolded...

Kennedy paid £75.92 using Apple Pay, he said, but as he left the shop, an assistant went over to tell him he hadn't paid. He showed the transaction on his banking app, but another assistant came over and he had to explain again what happened.

That person then shouted across the self-checkouts: "This guy hasn't paid for his groceries."

At this point, a supervisor came over and appeared to accuse him of attempting a scam, he said.

The supervisor told the second assistant: "You need to watch out for this, quite often they do two identical shops, pay for one, then use the payment to avoid paying for the second."

There was no evidence of this, Kennedy said -but the supervisor told him his transaction was "pending" and he would have to pay again.

"At this point I was angry, humiliated and running out of time, so I agreed to pay again as I just wanted to leave," Kennedy said.

Bank blocked card

His bank then blocked his card because of suspicions over two identical transactions. Tesco staff said he would have to pay another way if he wanted his groceries.

"At this point I was so angry at how I had been treated I just walked out, leaving my full trolley behind," he said.

Despite him abandoned his shopping, the transaction went through after the weekend, leaving him £75.92 out of pocket. He said Tesco told him he needed to provide evidence he hadn't taken the shopping and return to the store with his card to get a refund - "which would involve a 120-mile round trip and three hours of my time".

"At every level on this Tesco, you and your staff have comprehensively failed," Kennedy said. "You should actually be ashamed of yourselves."

Read Kennedy's account in full here:

We contacted Tesco about the incident and this is what a spokesman said: "Unfortunately, a fault with a scan as you shop handset at our West Moseley Superstore meant that it incorrectly indicated that Mr Kennedy's payment had not been completed.

"We are really sorry that this happened and have reached out to Mr Kennedy to apologise for how the matter was handled as it fell below the high standards that we would expect."

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You can emailmoneyblog@sky.uk and our team will get back to you.

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By James Sillars, business and economics reporter

There's a pause for breath on financial markets after the relief rally of the past few days.

Stocks and the dollar have recovered limited poise on the back of Donald Trump's decision to row back on a threat to fire the head of the US central bank and signal that 145% tariffs against China were set to drop back.

Stock markets across Europe have opened mostly lower – but not by much – with analysts suggesting that investors are awaiting the next cues from the White House.

There's just no getting away from worries that the Trump administration's trade war will harm the global economy for the foreseeable future.

In London, the FTSE 100 was mostly flat at 8,404, with corporate results providing some support.

Among constituents updating the market on its progress was Unilever – the consumer goods giant behind products including Marmite, Cornetto ice cream and Hellmann's mayonnaise.

It posted a better than expected 3% rise in first quarter sales and said it remained confident in achieving its full-year expectations despite the trade war hurdles.

The lack of an outlook upgrade probably accounted for a 1% decline in its share price.

One company ruing its exposure to tariffs was the car distributor Inchcape.

It reported a 5% fall in first quarter revenue and warned that US tariffs on the sector could potentially impact supply from some manufacturers.

Its shares were down 9%.

Octopus Energy was only set up in 2015 but has shaken up the energy market.

Its website boasts of being the UK's "most awarded energy supplier" and promises cheap, renewable energy for households.

But now the advertising watchdog has found that some of the firm's ads were "likely to mislead".

It partially upheld a complaint from its rival, British Gas.

Here's a breakdown of the row...

What did the Octopus ads say?

The Octopus ads across social media, radio and billboards claimed: "Most homes would save with Octopus."

And an email on 7 October said: "We’ve been notified by another supplier that you'll be switching to them… Will they really save you money?

"We're generally the cheapest or near enough: in fact, nine out of 10 Octopus customers pay less than they could with any other large supplier on the same product."

The British Gas complaint - and the Octopus defence

British Gas complained that only consumers on a standard variable tariff (SVT) with another supplier would save money.

But Octopus said the ads were intended to highlight the potential savings that a significant majority of consumers currently on standard tariffs could achieve if they switched to the supplier.

It told the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that it did not claim that Octopus was the cheapest supplier in every scenario or for every tariff type, adding that it would be willing to make changes to its advertising.

Regulator accepts most would save money

The ASA said consumers would understand from the claims that energy bills would be cheaper for most households if they were to switch to Octopus from any other provider.

The regulator understood that 80% of gas customers and 71% of electricity customers with other providers were on their supplier's default SVT.

It noted that Ofgem data from June 2024, based on average annual tariffs in the preceding quarter, showed that Octopus had the cheapest SVT of the seven major suppliers, saying: "We considered that those customers who switched from a non-Octopus SVT to an Octopus SVT were therefore likely to achieve a saving.

"Because those potential customers constituted the majority of UK households, we considered that most homes could or would potentially save money."

But ads were still 'likely to mislead'...

The ASA still found that Octopus had probably misled people.

It said consumers who were on a fixed tariff with another supplier might not necessarily save if they switched to Octopus, while Octopus customers on an SVT seeking to move to a fixed tariff might achieve a greater saving if they switched to another supplier.

The ASA said: "Because the ads did not make clear that the claims that most homes 'could' or 'would' save applied only to consumers on non-Octopus SVTs who chose to switch to an Octopus SVT, we considered they were likely to mislead."

Regarding the claim that Octopus was "generally the cheapest or near enough", the ASA found that other types of tariff, such as fixed rate tariffs, could be cheaper with another large supplier, ruling: "Because the ad did not make clear the basis of the claim, we considered that it was misleading."

'Ads must not appear again in current form'

The ASA's ruling said: "The ads must not appear again in their current form.

"We told Octopus Energy to ensure that they included adequate substantiation to support claims, including comparisons with identifiable competitors, in their marketing materials and to make the basis of any claim clear in their advertising.

"We also told them to ensure that any comparative claims were verifiable."

What did Octopus say?

A spokesman said: "The ASA confirmed the headline in our advert - that most homes could save with Octopus - but asked for a little bit more clarification in the small print, which we were delighted to add."