Woman prosecuted for taking food thrown out by Tesco

Sasha Hall, 21, has admitted handling stolen goods after taking food thrown out by the Tesco Express store in Great Baddow, Essex after a power cut.

One would have thought that Tesco would be glad that their £10,000 of waste food was being used to feed people, but a spiteful manager reported her to police.

Clearly Tesco are happy for police time and public money to be wasted on a non-event like this during a recession.

Why shouldn't people take their waste food home if they can no longer make money from it?

How does it harm Tesco?

Officers arrested Hall, one of many people taking the waste food, and seized £215 of food from her fridge, including 100 packets of ham, according to the Daily Telegraph.

For taking home food a supermarket could no longer sell, she could face a jail sentence, meaning it will be harder for her to get a job in the future.

Judge Rodger Hayward Smith QC has adjourned sentencing until June 20 saying "This is more complex than I thought. She cannot consume 100 packs of ham."

No, but she could give them to friends and family, and ham does keep for quite a while.

Perhaps the judge has no concept of how a fridge or freezer work.

I've been boycotting Tesco for years but recently started shopping there.

This news, and their decision to order councils to remove recycling bins from their car parks, means that I'm going to resume my boycott, and I call on you to boycott Tesco as well.

Tesco should have contacted their local branch of Fareshare to dispose of the food.