Frozen Out

WRONGLY accused . . . Richard Carr

Farmfoods boss is left homeless after being wrongly accused of theft
THE assistant manager of an Oldham supermarket claims he was left homeless and destitute after he was wrongly accused of stealing money.

When £1,000 was believed to have gone missing at Farmfoods, Chadderton, Richard Carr was blamed and sacked before being arrested and charged with theft.

The case was dropped after it was discovered there had been a bank clerical error and there was no money actually missing — but management refused to give Mr Carr his job back.

Unable to pay the rent and bills, the 24-year-old was made homeless and lost his girl friend of seven years.

After battling to get his life back on track, Mr Carr is now seeking compensation from the frozen food specialist and has blasted his treatment.

He said: “It was despicable. I lost my house, my girl friend, a managerial position and defaulted on bills so I was out on the street.

“I feel I’m owed by the company but I’m not getting any response from them. It’s absolutely bizarre. I have no idea why they did it.”

It was 18 months ago that Mr Carr landed his dream job but he had only been working at the Middleton Road store for four weeks when he was told £1,000 was missing from the safe and ordered to search for it.

After hunting desperately through bins he was unable to find any money and was taken to an office where he was told management suspected him. He was sacked on the spot without the opportunity to defend himself. Mr Carr was arrested by police and held in custody for eight hours before being charged.

A fortnight later he was contacted by the store’s area manager to be told a mistake on a bank slip accounted for the “missing” money and he was not at fault in any way.

Because he had only been employed for such a short time, he was unable to take the company to an employment tribunal. He has since sought help from a solicitor.

Mr Carr had previously worked at Asda and a calls centre but had no previous management experience when he spotted the Farmfoods job advert.

He said: “I jumped at the opportunity and I absolutely loved that job. It was round the corner from my house and was always busy. I was gutted when I lost the job. I couldn’t sleep for weeks after. I was waking up in the middle of the night and had stomach aches caused by stress.

“Sometimes I went for two days without food. I slept rough for two weeks and finally a friend phoned up and offered a room and I went to stay with him for a bit. It was really hard and if it hadn’t been for my friend getting that room for me, and where I could wash my clothes, I would not have been able to get another job. I would have been screwed.”

He has now moved from Chadderton to Rochdale and works as a baker at Tesco in Rawtenstall.

A Farmfoods spokeswoman refused to comment. The Chadderton branch is now run by different management.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that Mr Carr had been arrested and charged with theft but the case was discontinued.

A CPS spokeswoman confirmed the case was dropped before reaching court last August due to a lack of evidence.