Shopper's concern as Aldi staff confiscate "fake" fivers from confused customers

Julie Stribley said she believed the supermarket was wrongly seizing some £5 notes with the suspicion they were fake.

Aldi denied any wrongdoing, but 50-year-old Julie, a regular at Eastwood Aldi, said: “I looked online and there was a story in the Liverpool Echo a couple of years back about a shopping centre that was doing the same thing.

“The Treasury said the money was completely legal tender even if the ink or the Queen’s face were scratched off, because the notes are old.”

She added: “We were out shopping and the Aldi cashier was scratching £5 notes and they claimed the ink came off the front of the note and the notes were counterfeit.

“We were there about ten minutes and there were two people who had their money taken away from them — of course, that’s what you do if you find fake money but we thought it was strange that they had found so many counterfeit notes.

“The couple next to us didn’t speak English and having money taken off them made them quite upset."

Ms Stribley said she did not think the store was aiming to rip off its customers but she questioned the way the situation had been handled.

She added: “I think they’re taking money from people — they mean it well, actually, but they were doing it wrong.”

Aldi said in a statement: “Aldi colleagues are vigilant when it comes to checking the validity of notes used for payments in stores.

“If colleagues suspect any notes are not genuine, they have been asked to refuse to accept them for payment but to not take them from customers.

“The store has made the police aware of the incidents.”