Mum wrongly accused of being a thief in Sports Direct by facial recognition cameras

Perusing the aisles at Sports Direct with her young daughter, Anamaria Mihai thought something was a bit off – she was being followed.

They were in the Woolwich branch looking for a new pair of shorts, but at every turn she noticed members of staff just metres away.

Anamaria told Metro that she jokingly said: ‘You are following me.’ She claims the manager then shouted at her, saying: ‘Yes, because you are a thief.’

She said: ‘I wanted to die on the spot. He was loud and aggressive and acted like I was the biggest criminal. I just broke down in tears.’

Anamaria was told the store’s Facewatch facial recognition system had flagged her as having stolen a pair of shoes last year, which she adamantly denies.

Facewatch technology is used across the retail industry, including Sainsbury’s, River Island and Home Bargains. They claim their cameras have a 99.98% accuracy in recognising offenders.

However, mistakes have been made, and in February Metro revealed Warren Rajah was escorted out of a branch of Sainsbury’s after he was mistakenly identified as a thief.

Anamaria’s case appears to be the first reported instance of someone allegedly being added to the system in error.

She asked Sports Direct for the photo evidence against her, and says she was told to send her passport before they responded with a close-up image of her leaving the same store last August.

On that occasion, she had spent £80 on a pair of Converse trainers for her daughter, who wore them out of the store while carrying her old shoes out.

She said: ‘A staff member saw this and thought I had stolen the Pumas, so they put me on the system and that was that. There were no checks or anything; I was guilty until proven innocent.’

She says she was later removed from the system, but despite being offered a £30 voucher as an apology, she rejected it and has said she never wants to return.

Sports Direct has declined to comment.

Spokesman for the firm Eric Woollard-White said: ‘As soon as Facewatch was made aware, the matter was reviewed, and the relevant data was removed. We can confirm the customer is no longer on the Facewatch system.’

Jasleen Chaggar, from Big Brother Watch, said: ‘It’s the stuff of Kafkaesque nightmares to be trapped in a maze of bureaucracy and forced to hand over even more personal data just to be told the accusation.

‘The idea that we are all one facial recognition mistake away from being falsely accused of a crime, thrown out of a store and blacklisted without explanation should send a shiver down the spine.’

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