In an attempt to crack down on shoplifters, a UK storeowner has begun posting CCTV images of suspected thieves on the company's website, along with the incentive of a 500 pound (€580) reward for those who successfully identify thieves. On Saturday, the scheme claimed its first victim. But is it legal?

Early last month directors at Home Bargains discount shopping chain, which operates 190 stores in the United Kingdom, gave instructions to their managers to begin sticking up posters in shop fronts, displaying CCTV images of suspected shoplifters. A few weeks later, an online version of the anti-theft campaign was launched. A page entitled "Crimebusters" was added to the company's website, and eight purported thieves were named and shamed. Just three weeks after the launch, and one of them, whose image has since been removed, was arrested at the weekend.

Home Bargains, which raked in £384m (€446m) in annual revenues last year, says that six million (€6.9m), or the equivalent of 1.5% of revenue, is lost to shoplifting. Operations director Joe Morris says that the new scheme is the store's only way of countering the problem. He assures that the police are aware of and cooperating with the work, and that your mugshot will only go up on the site if the company is "very confident" that you stole from them.