'It's not stealing, but a badly needed reallocation of economic resources'

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A CLERGYMAN yesterday advocated shoplifting from supermarkets in retaliation for the damage he claimed they did to local communities. The Rev John Papworth said that theft was justified and added: "I don't regard it as stealing, I regard it as a badly needed reallocation of economic resources."

The 75-year-old Church of England priest, who works part-time in the north London area of St John's Wood, made the remarks in front of police officers at a community committee called to discuss the fight against crime.

Mr Papworth said after Tuesday's meeting of Paddington and Marylebone Police Community Consultative Committee that he had shoplifted when young. "I would do it now, but like most clergymen, I don't have the courage of my convictions."

Yesterday he stood by his defence of shoplifting from superstores, which he condemned as "places of evil and temptation" that had forced small shops out of business.

Peter Russell, the chairman of the Home Office-sponsored committee, said: "I have read the Ten Commandments, one of which is, 'Thou shalt not steal.' It is wrong, whether there is temptation or not."

Mr Papworth, who assists with services at St Mark's Church, St John's Wood, told The Times: "You can steal from a person -- though you must not -- but you cannot steal from a thing. These huge shops are the enemies of civilisation, creaming off profits, promoting unemployment, causing widespread bankruptcies of small businesses.

"They are a dagger in the guts of civilisation and the more they flourish, the more civilisation goes down the drain. They are doing that in seven-league strides because we have destroyed the structure, powers and prerogatives of local neighbourhoods. You cannot have morality without community."

Mr Papworth, a widower with three children, was brought up in an orphanage in Shoreditch, east London. He was ordained while in Zambia, where he was a personal assistant to President Kaunda in the 1970s. He has written two books, Small is Powerful and New Politics, which advocate the restoration of community life. He refuses to shop in supermarkets and believes that one day should be set aside each year for shoppers to help themselves from such stores.

He was imprisoned in the 1960s with Bertrand Russell for his part in the Committee of 100 marches, calling for nuclear weapons to be banned, and was jailed in the United States after taking part in a march for black rights.

He told the community committee that people were tempted into supermarkets by propaganda. "Once you are inside, there are these lavish displays of goods. Yet hardly enough staff are attendant on them. Of course people are tempted and sometimes walk out without paying. I have every sympathy for them, in fact I think they are fully justified."

A spokesman for the Right Rev Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, said: "They are his views. The bishop would not hold himself accountable for anything he says. One might say it is unfair to put temptation in people's way, but this does not make it right. There is a basic premise that people should not take things that do not belong to them."

The Rev John Barrie, the vicar of St Mark's, said: "I certainly do not agree with what he is saying. Stealing is always wrong."

Andrew Coker, a spokesman for Tesco, said: "The eighth commandment is 'Thou shalt not steal.' I find it very surprising that a vicar should be encouraging people to commit a sin."