SUPERMARKET bosses are always complaining about customers who go off with their trolleys.

But beleaguered assistants at Asda's South Bank store on Teesside now fear the thieves are going off their trolleys too, after finding them being used as barbecues and planters.

They claim they are constantly having to retrieve missing carts, despite a £1 deposit on each one.

The situation is so bad - with 20 to 30 going astray every week - that not even a contractor assigned to their recovery can cope.

Now staff say enough is enough, and are appealing to the local community to stop the trolley thefts.

Angela Roper, deputy customer services manager at the Middlesbrough store, said: "We have a company that comes twice a week to collect trolleys, but we are still having to send our own staff out.

"It costs £65 to replace them, so we are making quite a loss. We could really do with some help from the community in putting a stop to it."

Ms Roper said she is constantly amazed by some of the uses trolleys are put to. "People think they pay £1 and they can keep the trolley," she said. "I have seen them being used as barbecues and planters."

Andrew Smith, an accounts director with Northern Sales and Services, which recovers trolleys for Asda, said: "There are about two or three stores that are a complete nightmare, and we do have a loss problem at South Bank."