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A shopper filled 22 trolleys with £3,338 of food and drink and put them through the till – without having the cash to pay for them.

Supermarket workers were left furious as they had helped the man fill his trolleys with beer, soft drinks and crisps after being told he was shopping for a charity fundraiser.

Three staff who had helped the man with his bumper shop were left to return everything to the shelves after his card was repeatedly refused.

The manager of Morrisons in Barry said he had even opened a new till aisle to help the mystery shopping put his goods through the checkout, where they were packed for him.

Store manager Tony Ware, who even publicised the man’s supposed charity fund-raiser on the store’s public address system, said the scene was “pandemonium”.

Mr Ware said: “He said he wanted to do quite a large shop for a raffle on the waterfront with balloons and inflatables to raise money for the British Legion.

“A member of staff said to me: ‘Have you seen all the shopping in that aisle?

“It was then I saw eight shopping trolleys full to the brim with alcohol, beer, spirits – the whole lot.

“I became concerned as on his tenth trolley he already had about £1,500 worth of goods.

“I said to him: ‘Are you really buying all these goods?

“He said: ‘Of course I am, I have got £9,000 in the bank fund for this.’”

Mr Ware said when the man had filled up 22 trolleys he directed him towards a newly-opened checkout where the eventual bill was £3,338.16.

“All the shopping went through from one side to the other so I waited then to make sure the transaction went through with no problem,” Mr Ware said.

“It came to £3,338.16 and the card was not authorised.

“He said it was fine and said: ‘Let me ring the bank’.”

But after the bank provided an authorisation code, payment failed again and when staff were told to contact his local branch they were told he simply couldn’t pay.

The man was told to leave or police would be called and he has since been banned, while 15 staff took an hour to replace the groceries.

Mr Ware said the store hadn’t lost out because not much of the shopping was chilled or frozen.

“I gave him the benefit of the doubt because I did believe he had £9,000 in the bank I suppose. I won’t make that mistake twice,” he said.