This Morning viewers blasted the show after Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard interviewed a former shoplifter during Monday’s episode of the ITV show. 

The guest appeared on the programme to talk about her organisation Catch A Thief, which helps shop owners identify those who have stolen from them and get back their pilfered items. 

Farrah McNutt explained to Cat and Ben that she turned to shoplifting when she was at school, after being bullied for not having the latest things.

She grew up with seven siblings and in a household with not much money, so took things into her own hands – and even stole a bouncy castle for an old friend. 

Farrah explained: ‘I was 13 years old. I was getting bullied at school, my school trousers had holes in, I always always had something else there that needed fixing, my mum didn’t have money. 

‘I took it upon myself to go in and get my school trousers one time, took them off put my old ones in the oat hanger, I left them there and I got away from it. 

This Morning viewers blasted the show for ‘giving a thief airtime’ as a shoplifter spoke about their past 

Ben and Cat spoke to Farrah about her past and her work with Catch A Thief 

‘Then it started peaking a bit more from there, shoes, make-up, trends at school, anything I wanted I didn’t ask my parents anymore, I just took it from the shop.’

But after welcoming her son into the world she wanted to turn her life around and wanted to become a better role model for her child.  

Those watching at home were left baffled that the programme had given her airtime.

One wrote on X: ‘Ok so let’s start off with the sympathy story then the fact she shoplifted a bouncy castle is completely ok! #ThisMorning.’ 

Another said: ‘Giving a thief airtime now @ITV Why?!?! #ThisMorning.’

A third chimed in: ‘Are This Morning and Ben Shepherd promoting shoplifting?’ 

A fourth questioned: ‘Why are they wasting time interviewing a thief?! #thismorning.’

Farrah appeared on the ITV show to talk to Cat and Ben about her organisation Catch A Thief

Some viewers took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their confusion over the segment 

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However it was soon explained that Farrah helped set up organisation Catch A Thief back in 2014. 

Catch A Thief provides members with a number of different services including storing incidents on their secure servers, making public appeals and provide them with bespoke security office guarding services and CCTV.  

Farrah shared the news that she was appeared on the ITV show on her X account.

She wrote: ‘I will be appearing live on ITV’s this morning tomorrow where will be talking about retail crime and what led me to change my timeline and create a useful platform for retailers and communities to help them reduce crime in their businesses and the places we live.’

Speaking to The Sun in 2023, Farrah opened up about why she wanted to work with Catch A Thief: ‘I realised I didn’t want to go down that road.

‘I was getting into more and more trouble but when I got pregnant with my son, I didn’t want him to live that life.

‘I wanted to set a good example to him and all my younger brothers and sisters, who looked up to me. I didn’t want them to go through that life or end up with a criminal record so I stopped and went back to school to do GCSES.

‘Then I looked into the statistics and I found out 3.3 million thefts went unreported – and I wanted to know why.’

Catch A Thief has gone on to appear on national television and other publications. 

Some include Channel 5, Sky, ITV News and BBC Radio 1. 

This Morning airs weekdays on ITV1 from 10am and is available to stream on ITVX.