A brave supermarket manager who was fired for tackling a violent drug addict shoplifter has accused the supermarket giant of throwing him under the bus for doing the right thing.
Sean Egan, 46, became involved in an altercation with career criminal Daniel Kendall who spat in his face and became aggressive after stealing two bottles of Jack Daniels from his store near Walsall.
Instead of being applauded for his courage Mr Egan, who had worked for Morrisons from the age of 17 was instead sacked by Morrisons after 29 years loyal service for failing to follow its ‘deter-and-not-detain’ policy against shoplifters.
Mr Egan told the Mail: ‘I dedicated my whole life to Morrisons, but they did not even take my 29 years of service into account and just threw me under the bus for standing up for what is right.’
Drug addict Kendall regularly targeted the store and others nearby, launching a one-man crime wave with more than 100 offences to his name.
He once told a court that he needed to steal to fund his £50 per day heroin habit.
After being convicted of robbery and shoplifting in 2019, a judge told him: ‘You have been a public menace because of your addiction. Shopkeepers and those who work in shops need to be protected by the court.’
Following his latest crime spree which included the theft that led to Mr Egan’s sacking, he has since been imprisoned for 46 weeks for multiple offences.
Sean Egan, 46, was sacked from Morrisons after he failed to follow the supermarket’s ‘deter-and-not-detain’ policy against shoplifters
Drug addict Daniel Kendall spat in Mr Egan’s face and became aggressive after stealing two bottles of Jack Daniels from a Morrisons near Walsall
But despite languishing behind bars, it is Mr Egan who has paid a heavier price. He has been diagnosed with depression while battling suicidal thoughts and is relying on financial handouts from friends and family as he struggles to make ends meet.
Mr Egan told the Daily Mail: ‘All I tried to do was the right thing by protecting myself, my customers and my company. And for that I’ve been treated worse than a criminal.
‘My whole life imploded from the moment Kendal stepped into my store. I have been treated more harshly and unfairly than him because he’s not lost as much as I have. I’ve been deemed to be the bigger criminal than him.’
He added: ‘I dedicated my whole life to Morrisons, but they did not even take my 29 years of service into account and just threw me under the bus for standing up for what is right.’
Mr Egan lives with his wife Nikki in a smart £300,000 house in Wolverhampton which the couple bought eight years ago and have spent thousands of pounds renovating. He has two daughters, aged 13 and nine, from a previous relationship.
The quintessential hard-working man, he reflected with pride on his 29 years of dedicated service to Morrisons, five of which were as manager of its Aldridge store.
He started work with the company behind the delicatessen counter while still at school, earning £1.97 per hour and worked his way all the way up to store manager, earning close to £100,000, which is made up of a combination of salary and annual bonuses.
He regularly worked 12 to 18-hour shifts, six days a week at the store in Aldridge in the West Midlands. particularly in December, in the run-up to Christmas when the incident with Kendall took place.
Mr Egan, who had worked for Morrisons from the age of 17 was instead sacked by Morrisons after 29 years loyal service
‘I’m a proud man and have worked very hard for everything I’ve got,’ Mr Egan explained
His last pay cheque was in January and following his sacking, his pension and an investment scheme he was part of for Morrison employees has been suspended.
Mr Egan said: ‘I’m a proud man and have worked very hard for everything I’ve got. I’ve always paid my way and put a lot of effort into building a beautiful home. But for the first time in my life, I’m out of work and without money not because I did anything wrong but because I did something right.
‘When they told me I was being sacked, my first thought was how am I going to survive? I’ve got bills to pay, a mortgage, two children and a partner. I feel humiliated and rejected.
‘This company that I loved s*** on me from the greatest height.’
Mrs Egan told the Daily Mail: ‘He is the one who has been made to feel like a criminal. His sacking is nothing short of devastating, and disgusting.
‘He lived for his work and was disposed of so callously while trying to protect the store and customers, many of whole are elderly, from a repeat offender.’
She added: ‘The lack of support and empathy from his bosses has been appalling.
They dismissed him for gross misconduct, and he appealed the decision, but he lost. But I believe he did the right thing, absolutely.’
Recalling the incident of 3 December, Mr Egan revealed that he was alerted to the presence of Kendall in his store at around 9am after being informed by a colleague that he had stolen two one litre bottles of Jack Daniels, costing £45 each, which he had stuffed into his bag.
After confronting him because there was no security guard present, Mr Egan said he attempted to escort him out of the store and ask for the goods back calmly, in line with Morrisons policy, at which point Kendall spat in his face.
Mr Egan flung his arm back, in an attempt to put some distance between them, thinking he was about to spit at him again and then grabbed his arm when he saw Kendall reach into his bag.
Mr Egan said: ‘I was scared for my life because this guy was as strong as a bear, and I thought he was going to pull out one of the Jack Daniels bottles and hit me with it. He could have killed me with that.
‘I didn’t know what he was trying to do because he was very agitated and abusive. His eyes were glazed, and he had that look of a crazed drug addict. I didn’t want him pulling anything out of the bag and as I grabbed his arm it led to a tussle.’
Following the altercation, when both men nearly fell, Mr Egan managed to escort Kendall out of the store with the help of a colleague after being spat on by him three times.
As they emerged, two police officers who were standing nearby called out Kendall’s name, as he was well known to them and walked over to detain him.
Mr Egan revealed that when they searched his ba, they found the two Jack Daniels bottles, a small bag of heroin, other drug paraphernalia and half a pair of scissors.
He said: ‘When I saw what was in the bag, I realised that I was right to be scared and couldn’t take any risks.
‘It was a matter of life or death because there was a high probability that he would have used either the scissors or the bottles to attack me.’
He added: ‘We have a lot of elderly customers, and they were very distressed when they saw what happened. I did what I did for their benefit as much as mine. These are honest, hardworking people and they shouldn’t have to be around dangerous criminals like Kendall.’
But rather than being praised by his bosses, two days later, a senior manager visited the store to inform Mr Egan that he was under investigation for the way he handled the incident.
Mr Egan said: ‘The senior manager took me into a room, showed me the CCTV footage and quizzed me about what happened. I told him exactly what took place and how I had been spat at and feared for my life but none of that seemed to matter.
‘He just told me that I was in danger of losing my job and that the police were going to investigate me. I was shocked and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was hard to take in because I felt as if I was being persecuted for doing the right thing.’
While under investigation, Mr Egan was signed off sick by his doctor with depression and anxiety and did not return to work.
His disciplinary hearing took place in February. Following a four-hour hearing conducted by a senior manager he was told that he was being sacked for not adhering to company policy on how shop lifters should be handled.
Mr Egan said: ‘From the moment I was placed under investigation I became suicidal and depressed and didn’t want to speak to anybody. I became completely negative about life and quite often still am.
‘I’ve been in this dark cloud because everything I had worked so hard to build has been destroyed first by Kendall and then by Morrissons, the company I had dedicated my life to.’
Recalling the disciplinary hearing and its outcome he said: ‘They seemed to have made their minds up from the start. I didn’t feel as if anybody was interested in hearing what I had to say and how I feared for my life.’
Mr Egan is currently on anti-depressants and sleeping pills and is also undergoing regular counselling as he attempts to come to terms with the loss of his livelihood.
He has never been investigated by police for the incident with Kendall.
While manager at the Morrisons store in Aldrige, Mr Egan was hugely popular with his customers, who have organised a protest there this Saturday against his sacking and demanded his reinstatement.
Customer Donna Henn, a carer said: ‘He is very much liked and known by many shoppers for his friendly, helpful manner.He was only doing what he should be doing and trying to stop a shoplifter stealing from his store.
‘He was repaid with losing his job. It is terrible and he has support from many local people.’
Retired mortgage adviser Kathy Dyer said: ‘I knew him from shopping at Morrisons and his dismissal is totally wrong.’It is absolutely disgusting. He was trying to stop a wrongdoer and now he is being wronged by his bosses. There is no justice in that.’
Away from work, Mr Egan is a keep fit enthusiast who is well known within his local community and amongst his customers for running in marathons and other events to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for a variety of charitable causes.
His fundraising initiatives include trekking across the Sahara, sleeping outside to raise money for homelessness and running marathons in London, Paris and Berlin.
As he attempts to rebuild his life, Mr Egan insists that he has no regrets about confronting Kendall, despite the way things turned out.
He said: ‘There’s a shoplifting epidemic going on in this country and sadly, the criminals are getting away with it. We need to stand up to them but look where it got me? But if I had to do it all again I would because it was the right thing to do.’
A Morrisons spokesperson said: ‘We are continuing to take wide-ranging action to address the threat of shoplifting or violence in our stores.
‘The health and safety of all colleagues and customers is of paramount importance to Morrisons. We have very clear guidance, procedures and controls in place to protect our colleagues and customers from the risk of harm, which must be strictly followed.
‘These include detailed procedures for handling shoplifting incidents, which are in place to protect both the colleague involved and surrounding colleagues and customers, and which seek to de-escalate and calmly control the situation. We will not ask colleagues to put themselves at risk.
‘As a responsible employer, our focus is entirely on taking the correct action to ensure health and safety is maintained at all times.’
