Self-service checkout thieves beware: You're about to be sprung. Big time.

The reign of people brazen enough to scan all their groceries as carrots may soon be over.

Coles supermarkets are understood to be introducing new technology at its self-service checkouts to help tackle the company’s annual theft debt amounting to an estimated $1.1 billion, news.com.au reports.

The upgraded scanners could use a combination of weight and visual recognition to correctly identify items — meaning shoppers would struggle to get away with deliberately scanning products as cheaper items.

Efforts to curb self-service theft comes after years of stories and research that suggest the practice is extremely common.

Market research company Canstar Blue shared research with the Herald Sun that found younger shoppers were more likely to use self-service to steal.

The research said one in six customers in their 30s admitted to not paying for an item in a self-service area.

It was also found that across all age groups, about one in ten people were guilty of stealing from self-service machines.

Queensland University of Technology Professor Larry Neale told the ABC self-service technology made stealing psychologically easier as they distanced customers from the victim.

"Self-serve checkouts provide that distance between you and the organisation or an identifiable victim," he said.

"The customer can't point to someone and say, 'that person is going to lose money if I steal from this store'."

Professor Neale said although estimated costs of theft each year for Australian supermarkets would extend into the billions the losses would be partly absorbed.

"They do absorb more of that risk because they are saving so much on labour costs," he said.

Coles is yet to formally announce whether its self-service technology will be reconfigured or replaced.