A smiling conman bagged himself a free £330 when he picked a television off a shelf in an Aldi store, marched it up to the checkout and demanded a refund.

Police have released CCTV of the man wandering into the budget chain's Lincoln store on January 2.

The fraudster walked up to the cashier with the boxed Bauhn 49in Smart TV he had not bought and asked for a refund.

Police have released CCTV of the man (pictured left and right) who wandered into Aldi's Lincoln store on January 2

When he was asked for a receipt, he boldly walked up to the manager.

He shook hands with the store boss and then strutted back up to the till.

After seeing the interaction the cashier assumed the refund was fine to issue without a proof of purchase.

The middle-aged man was handed £329.99 and then calmly walked out of the store with the cash.

It was not until later that staff realised it had been a con and informed police.

A spokesman for Aldi refused to comment on the incident.

Officers from Lincolnshire Police have released CCTV images of a man they want to speak to in relation to the crime.

A spokesman said: ' We are looking to speak with this man seen on CCTV as we believe may be able to assist our enquiries.

'If this is you, or you recognise this person, please call 101 quoting "incident 324 of January 2. To report anonymously please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111."

Many people writing online said they had seen similar brazen exchange scams.

Jennifer Jane, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, said something similar happened at her mother’s local Sainsbury’s.

She said: ‘A woman staggered to customer services carrying a heavy vacuum cleaner and asked if she could leave it with them while she brought her car to the entrance.

‘Of course, [there was] no problem. She collected it and drove off with a £100-plus cleaner that hadn’t been paid for.’

Another web user from East Yorkshire said: ‘I worked in a big DIY store where conmen had been targeting stores with the same trick for years.’

Another wrote: ‘The more blatant people are, the more they get away with it.’



