A 22-year-old man has been banned from every Tesco store in Derby until 2029 after stealing two cans of cider — with his custody photograph sparking a wave of Ed Sheeran jokes online after Derbyshire Police posted it on social media.
Bailey Esmonde, of no fixed abode, was caught on camera entering a Tesco Express on St Peter’s Street and making off with two cans of cider. Two days after the theft on 30 March, he was arrested on suspicion of possessing cocaine. Charged with shop theft and possession of crack cocaine, Esmonde appeared at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court on 2 April and pleaded guilty to both offences. He was handed a 12-month conditional discharge, ordered to pay for the stolen cider and given a Criminal Behaviour Order banning him from every Tesco in the city of Derby until 13 May 2029. The order was formally granted by the courts on 14 May.
It was not Esmonde’s first run-in with Tesco’s security. In 2024 he was given an earlier CBO after admitting stealing a can of Monster energy drink, two packets of sandwiches, a bag of crisps and a bag of chicken bites from the Tesco Express in Alvaston. That order had restricted him to staying out of that single store. His latest conviction has now extended the ban across every branch in the city.
When Derbyshire Police posted his custody photograph online, the comments section quickly filled with observations about his resemblance to singer Ed Sheeran. “When your legs don’t work cause you’re barred from the store,” wrote one person, reworking the lyrics to the musician’s hit Thinking Out Loud. “When the till don’t work like it used to before,” added another. A third asked: “Is he Temu’s version of Ed Sheeran??” Others joined in: “He stole a fiddle from an Irish bar?” said one, while another simply wrote: “This is clearly ED HeRan.”
The force’s post drew a significant number of responses, with several commenters admitting they had clicked purely to read the Sheeran-themed remarks. “Anyone else just here for the Ed Sheeran comments,” one person wrote, apparently on behalf of most of the thread.
