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Two charity volunteers claim they were stopped from buying food for homeless people in Tesco because they were taking “too much”.

Stephen Chamberlain and Michael Taub tried to purchase £200 of tinned goods from the Brent Cross store to give to the needy at St Laurence’s Larder at Christ Church.

But while they were packing bags up with items including tuna, soup and beans, the store manager stepped in to say they had to hand it all back.

Mr Chamberlain, 70, told the Standard: “I just carried on packing up the food at first because I was sure it wasn’t true.

“Michael told him that we were buying food for a soup kitchen but the manager just said ‘I’m sorry but you can’t’.

“He said we couldn’t buy the food because we were taking away his customers’ choice.

“We were completely humiliated. It’s just so embarrassing. We buy our food at Tesco and Sainsbury’s every week and we have never, ever been stopped before.”

Mr Chamberlain revealed the charity was not able to give everyone who turned up on Friday enough food for the weekend because of the Tesco incident.

“I could understand if there was a shortage of fresh fruit or veg but surely they don’t need to ration tuna,” he added.

“It’s not like we had taken every last tin either, we hadn’t even taken half of them.”

A Tesco spokesman told Metro.co.uk: “We always try to serve all of our customers in the best way and make sure there is availability for everyone.

“Sometimes our colleagues have to use their discretion when customers are bulk buying and we apologise for any inconvenience caused for Mr Chamberlain.

“We would be keen to see how we can support St Laurence’s Larder and we’ll be in touch to see if they could benefit from our Community Food Connection programme, which links our stores with local charities and community groups to supply them with good quality surplus food.”

St Laurence’s Larder provides fresh food for the homeless and needy every Tuesday and Thursday morning. It also runs a food bank with tinned food for those in desperate need.