Man who pretended to be Asda manager and walked out with £40k still at large

A man who pretended to be an Asda manager and walked out with a £40,000 loot remains at large to this day.

The conman, who has never been identified, carried out the unlikely heist by walking behind the counter of the Bureau de Change at the Asda supermarket in Trafford Park, Manchester and posing as a senior member of staff. Dressed in a smart grey suit, he spoke to staff and served customers as they approached the desk, dealing with their requests and handing out cash and traveller's cheques. Then, after biding his time, he used a crucial piece of inside information to strike - and made off with tens of thousands of pounds.

The crime unfolded almost a decade ago on July 29 2015, but remained under wraps until Manchester Evening News received a tip-off and broke the story on August 5 that year.

Police then released astonishing CCTV footage of the man convincingly playing the role of the manager.

In the years since the scenes have been compared to the Hollywood blockbuster ‘Catch Me If You Can’, where Leonardo DiCaprio plays real life con artist Frank Abagnale Jr - a man who made millions posing as a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer.

Making off with a smaller but certainly not insignificant amount of money, the brazen nature of the Asda conman's scheme still shocks to this day - with CCTV footage revealing how exactly he went about committing the crime.

The man is shown in the footage calmly walking into the kiosk clutching a plastic bag and a tablet device, along with a set of white earphones.

In one part of the minute-long clip, he is seen chatting to a customer who approaches for help, and in another he plays with a mobile phone he holds under the Bureau de Change kiosk. He is also shown fiddling around with drawers under the counter.

Explaining how he managed to gain access to the kiosk, a source told the MEN: “As the woman in the Bureau de Change was leaving he slipped into the kiosk. He started to serve customers, just giving them wedges of cash, as he clearly had no idea about exchange rates. He apparently wore a glove, knew the code for the safe, punched it in, and was able to empty it.

“At one point a senior member of the Asda staff walked passed while he was in the kiosk and even spoke to him but he just kept up the pretence - as cool as you like.

"Some of the customers got an early Christmas bonus too - getting much more than they should have done. Apparently the code to the bureau safe had not been changed for ages. He must have been in a few times and done his homework.”

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) offered a £2,000 reward for information leading to arrests and convictions, but no arrests were ever made.

The conman was described as Asian, aged in his mid 20s or early 30s and slim. In one section of the footage, he is seen wearing a single black glove. He sported a suspiciously full head of hair, later suspected to be a wig, along with a likely fake beard.

GMP's Det Con Simon Johnson said the man had never worked in the store. Appealing for information at the time, he said: “I would ask people to take time to look at the CCTV footage and bear in mind that the offender may be using some form of disguise to obscure his appearance. The company who owns the kiosk have put forward a reward of £2,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for this crime.”

In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said: “At 3.45pm on Wednesday, July 29th, (2015) police were called following reports a large amount of money had been stolen by a man from a currency kiosk based at Trafford Park."

GMP told local media this week that the mystery man had never been arrested, and all intelligence on the case dried up in 2015.