This Morning viewers were left scratching their heads as hosts and Cat Deeley sat down with ex-shoplifter Farrah McNutt in a recent episode.
The ITV daytime favourite returned this Monday (February 3), with Ben and Cat presenting an action-packed show.
Yet, eyebrows were raised just minutes in when they turned attention to Farrah McNutt, who candidly recounted her former life of shoplifting.
Now, at the helm of a company that prevents theft, Farrah has indeed changed her ways, although she went into great detail about her past exploits, including the audacious theft of a bouncy castle from a shop.
With their interest piqued by the tale, Cat queried: “How did you steal a bouncy castle? That must have been a big coat.”
This Morning came under fire once again for interviewing a former shoplifter – with viewers accusing the show of promoting shoplifting (Image: ITV)
Farrah explained: “No, it’s about the confidence of the shoplifting, I literally went to the till and said ‘can I have the biggest bag you got’ which at this time, it was the biggest bag. I went up to the thing and walked straight.”
Ben chimed in: “So it’s about confidence and front!”
Despite Farrah’s reformed nature, some viewers were puzzled over why so much airtime was devoted to the antics of a past shoplifter, voicing their opinions on social media platform X.
One viewer commented: “Why are they wasting time interviewing a thief?”.
One viewer lamented, “Bottom of the barrel TV this” while another expressed their dismay at the programming choice: “Giving a thief airtime now ITV – Why?!?”
Don’t miss…
Farrah McNutt appeared on This Morning (Image: undefined)
A third person questioned the intentions behind the segment: “Are This Morning and Ben Shepherd promoting shoplifting?” and yet another was critical, saying: “Ok, so let’s start off with the sympathy story, then the fact she shoplifted a bouncy castle is completely ok!”
Despite facing some opposition, Farah has since turned her life around and now assists retailers through her business, Catch A Thief. In a previous interview with The Sun, she confessed: “When I first shoplifted it was for necessities but when there’s no consequences you keep going.”
“People told me no one’s being harmed here, there’s no victims and because I was young, I wouldn’t get in trouble for it, which obviously is not true.
“It is not a victimless crime because store owners lose money they need put food on the table, they may have to let staff go or even close, which has a huge impact on the community.”
This Morning airs weekdays from Mondays-Fridays from 10am on ITV1