A mother from St Albans is urging a supermarket giant to take action after a kitchen firm took almost £2,000 from her children but never delivered the product.

Jyoti Chauhan’s sons spent £1,875 with Home Improvement World, a company that was operating from inside Watford’s Tesco Extra. They paid in cash in April, but have not received the kitchen.

Tesco has admitted that the company was not authorised to be in its store. It also said the company had worked inside Tesco before, but was removed from the supermarket after a customer complained about them.

Mrs Chauhan, 52, of Hawthorne Way, said Tesco should take responsibility and help her sons get their money back.

She said: “It’s unbelievable. I trusted Tesco. When you are in a supermarket like that, you automatically assume that companies working in there are legitimate.

“Not only has this highly distressed me, my sons are massively out of pocket with a house that has no kitchen, and I am disgusted."

The mother-of-two contacted Tesco after Adam Sheik, their contact at Home Improvement World, became increasingly difficult to contact.

After the firm twice failed to deliver the kitchen and Mr Sheik used personal problems as excuses for the delay, Mrs Chauhan said she became “extremely concerned”.

When she contacted Home Improvement World, she was told Mr Sheik worked for Amazing Kitchens, its retail element.

Tesco told her that third party businesses operating inside its stores were vetted by a company called N2O.

But when Mrs Chauhan contacted N2O, it had no record of Home Improvement World or Amazing Kitchens, and had not authorised them to work in Tesco.

She said: “I could not believe it. I immediately called Tesco back and they admitted their error over the phone.

“They told me I should contact the Trading Standards Agency, which I already had, and said that they were working with the police, but that was all they could do.

“That isn’t good enough.”

Speaking on behalf of Tesco, Joe Chapman said: “This is a very serious issue.

“We can confirm that this visit by the third party company to our store was unauthorised and that guidance has been issued to local stores in the area, alerting colleagues to the risk.”

Home Improvement World and Amazing Kitchens were contacted for a comment.

Home Improvement World had not responded when the Review went to press. Amazing Kitchens could not be reached.