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I was banned from EVERY Morrisons in the UK after being accused of shoplifting – but I got my revenge once I saw CCTV
He believes staff racially profiled him
A BLACK ex-police officer was banned from every Morrisons store in the UK after being wrongly accused of attempted shoplifting.
Jez Daniels believes he was racially profiled by the grocery giant, with staff claiming he was acting "suspiciously" during his visit to the store in Rogerstone in Newport, South Wales.
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But the dad was able to force an apology after getting hold of CCTV of the incident, with Morrisons admitting it did not have the evidence to back all accusations made against him.
Jez, an IT security consultant who runs a cyber security computing business, went into his local supermarket on February 2, 2022 to buy alcohol for him and his partner and chocolate for his kids.
He was wearing a regular surgical face mask - in line with Covid protocol at the time.
After heading for the alcohol aisle, he noticed staff following him and eventually abandoned his items - but was then confronted by a duty manager who asked him to leave.
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During the incident he was told he was banned from the store.
Jez, originally from Cheshire, later complained to Morrisons head office and after a further investigation was banned from every store in the UK.
But on submitting a GDPR request he was eventually sent statements made by staff and CCTV footage which appeared to contradict each other.
A Morrisons chief, who had led the probe, apologised to him and lifted the ban as a "gesture of good will" - though maintained he had been acting suspiciously and they were right to take action.
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Jez - who previously worked for Cheshire and Hampshire constabularies - told The Sun: "Staff decided I was suspicious. They did the whole racial profiling on me and they decided I'd stolen £200 worth of spirits.
"Because of the nature of my work, I put in GDPR requests to access the CCTV and it shows I was nowhere near the spirits, but Morrisons decided the staff had done nothing wrong."
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Referring to ingrained racism leading to assumptions people of colour are more likely to commit crime, he added: "Western society has told us that about black people and that’s why it’s instinctive, it’s a learnt behaviour.
"You still have that, we are better than you because you used to be slaves and you’re darker than us.
"So you have to maintain that - for want of a better word - white supremacy.
"It is instinctive because that is what we’ve been taught. It’s subconscious bias."
Jez said he got lawyers involved and it "cost a lot of money" but ultimately he ran out of time for legal action due to the six month statute of limitations.
He said he believes he was accused of £200-worth of theft purely because he understands the CPS "won't prosecute" in certain cases unless it's over that amount.
Jez said it was only when he was given staff statements that he found out he'd been described as "violent and aggressive" during the incident and supposedly caught attempting to steal the items.
However, Morrisons told him it could not supply CCTV footage indicating he ever had £200-worth of goods in his possession or of his alleged aggression, with the footage available showing him acting calmly and leaving the store quickly when seemingly directed to do so by the manager.
He said: "Talk about being gaslighted, I thought I don’t recall any of this and then I looked at the store CCTV and lo and behold, none of that happened.
"You can see I’m not being violent, abusive or aggressive.
"Morrisons had banned me from all Morrisons stores on the basis of these staff statements, which Morrisons' own CCTV proved to be untrue.
"I was leaving anyway and the duty manager said I needed to get out."
He added: "They don’t have any evidence but they are telling me that it’s suspicious."
Jez said despite the ban being lifted the following May, he refuses to ever go to the supermarket again.
"They lifted the ban... but I can’t go into a store or deal with any organisation that feels it’s okay for its employees to engage in consumer racial profiling or discriminatory behaviour and tell blatant lies as they did," he said.
"They clearly profiled me without even knowing me.
"Because of the nature of my work I need to not be a criminal. I have to have a clean DBS check and I have to produce that to my clients every now and then.
"If I were to engage in the behaviour Morrisons claimed without evidence then I would lose my business because my business relies on me not doing that."
"Talk about being gaslighted, I thought I don’t recall any of this and then I looked at the store CCTV and lo and behold, none of that happened."
Jez shared the CCTV, as well as Morrisons' 'customer file' of him and further email exchanges with The Sun.
One email, from a member of the data protection team, says in response to him asking for footage showing him with large amounts of alcohol and attempting to leave the store "there is no personal data to share with you in response to your latest request".
In another email from March 6, 2022 from a customer service manager at head office, he was told: "I have now investigated with the General Manager at our Rogerstone store and need to advise you that you are now no longer able to shop with us or enter a Morrisons store.
"The reason for this decision is due to your recent behaviour as observed in the store.
"We do have a duty of care to both our customers and our staff and because of your actions we have no other option but to ask you now to shop elsewhere."
On April 12, 2022 Jez was told by a contact centre operations manager his actions in the store "caused a reasonable suspicion by the staff that a theft was about to occur" and that on that basis he was asked to leave and banned by the duty manager.
They went on to list the factors which raised suspicion, being he entered the store with a basket or trolley and instead picked up a carrier bag from a checkout.
They said he "walked straight to the alcohol aisle where you walked up and down a few times before placing alcohol of a high value" into the bag - and later "abandoned" it in an aisle.
However, Morrisons could not provide CCTV footage of any of this.
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The operations manager added: "I believe that in the circumstances the store acted reasonably...However I accept that you feel upset and as a gesture of goodwill I have spoken to the store and that the order banning you from shopping with Morrisons has been lifted."
Morrisons said it did not wish to comment when approached by The Sun.
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