Things have gone from bad to worse for British celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson, who was arrested after shoplifting cheese and wine at a Tesco grocery store.

The Courier Mail reports that Worrall Thompson, 60, was arrested in front of astonished customers after five shoplifting episodes in just 16 days.

Suspicious staff filmed the chef on a secret camera in the store’s self-service checkout area, where shoppers scan barcodes on their purchases and pay using machines.

The recession-hit star is said to have put some items under the scanner but sneaked others into bags without paying for them. Guards stopped him from leaving the supermarket and checked his bags after he was filmed last Friday – then called police.

Sources said the stolen goods were "relatively low value" but included cheeses and bottles of wine.

Worrall Thompson tasted success as he launched a string of top eateries – and soared to TV fame in the 1990s. But the recession hit his restaurant business, and he recently moved out of his $2.5 million mansion.

Worrall Thompson has shown up in barfblog.com before. He was a signatory to a open letter calling on the British public to ask where their food comes from (free from the grocery store?), he published a recipe in Healthy & Organic Living that included a toxic plant as an ingredient, and has run afoul of public health types for using paving stones as a kitchen counter at a public BBQ.