Day or night, you won't miss a story with the Liverpool Echo newsletter Sign me up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Asda's Ellesmere Port store has been forced to relocate its stock of envelopes after crafty criminals were caught posting stolen goods to themselves via the supermarket’s in-house Post Office.

Shoppers at the chain’s Ellesmere Port Supercentre branch were baffled after padded envelopes and postage boxes were moved away from the Post Office desk and kept behind the entertainment counter at the other end of the store.

Asda staff admitted to customers that the reason for the bizarre location of the envelopes was due to a wave of shoplifters taking stock including DVDs and CDs, sealing them in the envelopes and then posting them back using the store’s Post Office counter.

A confused Asda shopper posted on the Pride in the Port Facebook page to show his confusion about the sly shoplifting method.

Jennie Barker commented: “Who would have thought that there were such clever criminals in Ellesmere Port”.

Another Asda customer, Stacey Ashford-Holmes expressed her confusion about the situation. She said: “Well at least now I know why they’re there. I was so confused when I found out they were there.

Meanwhile, other shoppers made light of the situation. One said: “Ha ha! Class...... 1st class”

An Asda spokesperson confirmed that ‘a small number of customers’ were posting items to themselves using the in-store Post Office.

They said: “We take shoplifting very seriously and work with the local Police to ensure this doesn’t happen in our stores.

"This allows us to continue to offer the low prices that customers expect from Asda.”

Here is the original Facebook post: