CRIMEBUSTERS are logging on to the internet to help beat shoplifting in an Exeter store.

And if they report anyone attempting to steal goods they could end up £1,000 better off.

The Londis shop in Burnthouse Lane is the first in Exeter to have its security cameras linked up to a new crime watch service, Internet Eyes.

Shop owner Margaret Beesley said: "It is a wonderful idea and a massive development for retail business. I think it will make the inventor a millionaire."

Dawlish entrepreneur and former nursing home owner Tony Morgan has taken several years to develop Internet Eyes, an online instant notification system that allows registered viewers to monitor live CCTV feed from shops and notify them the instant a crime is observed.

For privacy reasons, users will not know the location of stores.

Mr Morgan said: "The idea is quite simple. The shop's CCTV security cameras are linked to our system and the film streamed live on to the internet website. People pay £12.99 a year or £4.99 a quarter and for that they can log on and watch two shops at a time. You don't get to choose which shops you watch and you cannot watch any shops in your postcode area.

"If someone is seen shoplifting the viewer presses an alert button that sounds a warning on the shop owner's mobile phone. He can then confront whoever is pictured. He will have a picture grab sent to him as well."

Mr Morgan said that in the three weeks the system had been operating in 23 shops from Portsmouth to Scotland there had been 300 alerts.

"Our figures show the average viewing time is around three hours, 32 minutes," he said. "We have people in France watching our shops and are looking to expand to Germany and other parts of Europe.

"We operate a sort of league table where a viewer gets three points if it turns out to be definite alert for a shoplifter, one point if it is not a shoplifter but a reasonable call and no points if it is a false or malicious alarm. After five false alarms the viewer gets a warning letter. The person with the most points at the end of the month gets a £1,000 reward – and we hope to increase that."

Mrs Beesley, one of three owners of the Londis store, said "We have very good CCTV cameras here but the difficulty is always having someone monitoring them. With this system the public is watching too.

"We have clear signs explaining its operation.

"This Internet Eye will help deter the casual shoplifter for whom it is a bit of a pastime."

The scheme has been approved by the Information Commissioner's Office. An ICO spokesman said Internet Eyes was being made to comply with the Data Protection Act in using and storing images.

Daniel Hamilton, of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: "It's astonishing to think that innocent people doing their shopping could soon be spied on by an army of busybodies with an internet connection.

"CCTV should be used sparingly to help solve real crimes, not to encourage this tawdry voyeurism."

Charles Farrier, director of the pressure group No CCTV, said: "It is an appalling idea for a game and will create a snoopers' paradise.

"It is something which should be nipped in the bud."