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Gangs of Romanians are stealing chewing gum in bulk from supermarkets to use as currency back home.

Thousands of packets are being stolen and shipped to the eastern European country, where it is given instead of change in shops.

Police in Wiltshire have charged one Romanian and cautioned another.

A gang bolted from a Tesco in Swindon with a trolley packed with £700 of gum last Tuesday. Just an hour later, guards stopped another mob trying to flee with £720 worth of assorted flavours and brands at an Asda store in the town.

Wiltshire police said: “Our intelligence suggests gum fetches a high value in Romania and is used as a currency, so these groups try to steal it in bulk and ship it over there.” Supermarkets in Shropshire also saw an increase of chewing gum thefts early last summer.

Stores in Shrewsbury, Telford, Market Drayton and Bridgnorth were hit and police said there had been at least 12 incidents in the county, with the biggest haul worth £800.

PC David Walton said: “They were eastern European nationals and there have been some arrests. If you go into a shop in Romania and purchase goods, they will give you sticks of chewing gum instead of change so stealing chewing gum is effectively stealing money.”

“People come across for a couple of weeks and do a number of thefts. This is organised crime.”

Over the last 18 months, several Romanians have appeared in court and been given short sentences or conditional discharges for similar thefts in Cambridgeshire, Hull, Newcastle and Bolton.