TESCO is forking out £3,000 a week to replace trolleys swiped from its store in Colchester’s Hythe, it has been revealed.

The supermarket, in Greenstead Road, says as many as 30 trolleys a week are going missing – and blames students at Essex University for the majority of the disappearances.

It has forced Tesco to invest £100,000 in new coin-locked trolleys.

Astonished customer Brian Pierpoint, of Mersea Road, Colchester, said he could not believe it when he visited the store and found the trolley park empty.

He said: “One old boy said he had been all around Tesco looking for a trolley to use. I went around and I couldn’t find any myself either.

“How are the students allowed to get away with it?”

Tesco previously had an agreement with the university that trolleys were collected from the campus, half a mile away, and delivered back to the store.

But the agreement was cancelled when the university asked Tesco for £200 a week for the return service.

A Tesco spokesman said: “Unfortunately, students from Essex University have got into the habit of taking our trolleys back to campus with them when they’ve finished shopping.

“Because the trolleys belong to Tesco and are being taken from the site without permission, we do not believe we should have to make this payment.”

He said Tesco was in negotiations with the university over the issue.

He added: “In the meantime, there is a shortage of trolleys on site and our customers are suffering.

“To prevent this, we will be replacing the fleet with a coin-lock system so customers can receive the service they deserve.

“We would very much appreciate the university’s help in educating their students about the environmental damage they are inflicting when removing these trolleys.

“We will shortly be writing to the chancellor of the university to ask for his help with this.”

Mark Ager, deputy director of the university’s estate management section, said: “Many of our students are Tesco customers and we recognise there is an issue with some students bringing trolleys back to our campus after shopping at the store.

“We did have an agreement with Tesco to return trolleys found on our campus, but this was stopped in January at the request of Tesco, when it informed us it had its own arrangements in place.

“Under the previous agreement, we returned trolleys to Tesco and asked the company to cover our staff costs only.

“We are happy to continue educating our students about the need to return trolleys to the store after using them and will go on talking to Tesco about this issue.”