Woman kicked out of two Home Bargains because of high-tech cameras

Danielle says she was left deeply embarrassed after staff told her she had to leave

A mum was kicked out of two Home Bargains stores after facial recognition software wrongly identified her as having previously shoplifted £10 worth of toilet rolls. Danielle Horan, 50, was left feeling ‘sick’ after she was taken aside and kicked out of Home Bargains – after she staff mistakenly marked her as having stolen a pack of 24 toilet rolls on a previous visit.

The shocked mum was visiting Home Bargains in Salford, Greater Manchester, on May 24 when a manager pulled her aside and asked her to leave the store. Danielle said: “I thought it was a joke – I was saying ‘why, what have I done?’ and she was saying ‘you’ve been recognised on facial recognition and you’re banned from our stores.

“I felt really sick and anxious about it, I thought ‘have I stolen something without realising?’ because you do question – she didn’t give me any more details.”

Danielle contacted Home Bargains’ head office and says she ‘didn’t’ really get very far’, with the retailer telling her to contact facial recognition security company Facewatch, which operates the system. Facewatch, which advertises itself as a ‘secure cloud-based platform’ which sends instant alerts when ‘subjects of interest’ enter business premises, says its software worked correctly, and that Danielle had been incorrectly marked as a thief by a member of store staff.

On its website, Facewatch lists retailers including Sports Direct, Frasers, Budgens, and Southern Co-op among its clients. Two-and-a-half weeks later, on June 4, Danielle tried to put the incident behind her when she visited her local Home Bargains store four miles away in Fallowfield, Manchester.

The mum-of-four, who works as a makeup artist, said she regularly visits the shop as an outing with her 81-year-old mother, Teresa. But, when she got there, Danielle says staff immediately kicked her out.

Danielle said: “As soon as I went through the doors, they were radioing through. The area manager and manager came and said I had to leave the store. I argued my case, saying ‘you need to give me more details, you can’t do this to people’, and he said to me ‘well it’s 99.9% accurate and you wouldn’t believe what thieves look like these days.’

“It was something along those lines, and I was really annoyed. That was in front of my mum, so my mum was really stressed.”

Danielle then spent the next few days trying to get her name, or face, cleared as she frantically searched for a receipt in her bag and car to prove she had paid. After being taken off the system and then being put back on again, she finally received an apology on Friday, June 6, after the company looked at the CCTV again and saw she had paid.

Danielle said: “When I knew it was the toilet roll, it’s actually quite funny – I know I’ve got some stick for that. I always take my mum to that store, we always get our toilet rolls, toiletries, and hair spray, and these toilet rolls, you can’t really steal them – they’re quite big packs.

“I got anxiety through having to prove my innocence, I was scared about how far it would go.”

Facewatch says it technology is 99.99% accurate, and blamed the error on staff falsely flagging Ms Horan as a thief. A Facewatch spokesperson said: “We acted swiftly once this matter was brought to our attention and we can confirm that there was no error whatsoever with our facial recognition technology.

“Working closely with the retailer, we reviewed the incident in full and, once we were informed the items had been paid for during an earlier visit, the individual’s data was immediately removed from our system. We acknowledge and understand how distressing this experience must have been and the retailer has since undertaken additional staff training to ensure the system is used fairly, lawfully, and in line with our high standards.

"We work continually with all of our retail partners to ensure that their use of Facewatch meets the highest possible standards in order to deter crime and protect employees.”

The spokesperson added: “The system uses dual facial recognition algorithms and human verification to ensure accuracy and has been audited to 99.99 per cent precision. We continually review our technology and processes to ensure they meet our own high standards and remain fully compliant with UK data protection legislation and latest regulatory guidance."

Danielle said she now wants an apology from Home Bargains for the ordeal. A spokesperson for TJ Morris Ltd, which owns Home Bargains, said that it had ‘nobody available for comment’.

Madeleine Stone, of Big Brother Watch, said: “Facial recognition surveillance turns shoppers into walking barcodes and makes us a nation of suspects, with devastating consequences for people’s lives when it inevitably makes mistakes. “We are regularly hearing from and supporting distressed people who have been caught up in a confusing net of privatised surveillance, despite being entirely innocent.

“Deploying airport-style security checks in order to buy a pint of milk is hugely disproportionate and is leading to injustices with no clear remedy for those wrongly labelled as criminals by AI. The Government must urgently step in and stop retailers from subjecting shoppers to this Orwellian technology.”

A government spokesperson said: “While commercial facial recognition technology is legal in the UK, its use must comply with strict data protection laws. Organisations must process biometric data fairly, lawfully and transparently, ensuring usage is necessary and proportionate.

“No one should find themselves in this situation. We will continue to work closely with the Information Commissioner’s Office to ensure regulations remain effective as technology evolves and that individuals have a route to correcting these sorts of mistakes where they occur.”

An Information Commissioner's Office spokesperson said: “All organisations must ensure they have the right checks and balances in place to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the personal information they collect. This is especially important where personal information is used in situations which can have a serious impact on a person.

“Whilst innovations like facial recognition technology (FRT) can help prevent crime and are in the public interest, these benefits must not outweigh people’s fundamental right to privacy. We are aware of recent incidents regarding the use of FRT in retail settings and we encourage anyone concerned about how a retailer is using their personal information to complain directly to the business”