A retail chain was today accused of ‘vigilantism’ after posting pictures of suspected shoplifters in its store windows and on the company website.
TJ Morris, which owns the Home Bargains brand of stores, said it had taken the ‘hardline’ approach after losing an estimated £6 million a year to in-store theft.
But a human rights expert warned that the company was breaking the law by branding the suspects as guilty without having had a fair trial.
Simon Davies, director of the human rights organisation Privacy International, said: ‘You can’t just bring your own system of vigilante justice.
‘The whole exercise is wrong-footed legally, it flouts the entire justice system.’
Mr Davies said the company was potentially libeling the people shown in the photos, and that those identified could also bring action under data protection laws.
This company are lucky they are not in America. Every shoplifter who ever stole from this store would return, check for their picture, and sue.
This is one of the most reckless things I have ever heard a legit company do…
I reeeeaaaly need sleep you know! haha.
Do I see another pattern emerging here? Along the lines of ‘heroes’….. I recall a comment about it yesterday or the day before (they’re all currently merging atm) lol.
Argh! Crushing the conspiricy of the cheater eh!
I know that was the last thread btw, but isn’t this kind of linked?
Bleh!
they could just go in and nick the pictures if they’re bothered by it.
The key phrase here is “suspected shoplifters”. If you’re ‘suspected’ you are, under English law, innocent until proven guilty. That is a simple fact that TJ Morris would be wise to remember. They can’t simply make up their own justice system because someone looks a bit dodgy.
Well done TJ Morris, about time shops started standing up to the chav ridden scum that pollutes our society, just a shame that the governments so scared of hurting someones feelings to change these ridiculous PC laws that protect these lowlife shoplifters. Perhaps if every store followed suit we might actually pay what goods are worth rather than having to pay inflated prices to compensate for theft.
It has always baffled me how criminals believe they are having their rights infringed. I know the “an eye for an eye” tactic is probably not the best one for a shop to take, but they should be able to do something to bring attention to the people they have filmed on CCTV taking goods?
Pubs and clubs ban people, so why not shops?
i’d like to say that from personal experience of a particularly mischevious childhood, that i am on TJ Morris’ side, yeah ok wot they did was wrong but , did the shop lifters come back? no i dont think they did, i certainly wouldn’t have done, and once they’re sure the shop lifters wouldn’t go back, they take the pics down, that’s just my opinion anyway.
i don’t understand where the link to the events is. i’m still going with the theory of time travel
I’m sure the only reason they posted these pictures is not because they’re “suspected”, in the true sense of the word, but because they were caught on camera stealing something. You see it on things like Crimewatch all the time. They post pictures, CCTV footage and photo-fits of people. I’m sure TJ Morris aren’t reckless enough to just post up random photos. If anyone brings a case, you would assume that TJ Morris can rock into court with the entire video footage of that person sticking something up their jumper.
Like the title – a good gag
As the bishop said to the choirboy…
The mistake they are making is doing this publicly.
If they were to display the images prominently within the store only, I think it would be a different situation.
I had a shop do this to me. I visited a toy shop and purchased some expensive lego sets, when I was in the shop they failed to deactivate one of the tags so it set the alarm off, the checkout operator came over to me checked my bags and let me on my way. When I visited the shop a week or two later I was on their wall of shame because a manager had checked when the alarm went off and compared it to the CCTV pictures, saw my picture and posted it there! First off they accused me of stealing so I asked them to call the Police but they wouldn’t do it. After getting very shouty in store and telling them I would sue them for damages a company director was called who immediately gave me a £50 gift voucher and said they wouldn’t do this in future, if they had not have relented I would have…
I disagree with this type of actions from shop owners. It triggers a lot in the people that are not under suspicion (they might start to recognize one of them whereas the person in the picture might not be guilty at all, and even if she/he had been guilty .. why did they not take action the normal way?). This system sucks. It’s the store’s job to secure their products properly. And for 6 mil they could have put some more effort in security .. but hey .. as cheap as possible … All private people will have to see to their own property on a daily bases as well.
Geeeezz .. someone who has the exact same dress will not dare to wear it again .. apart from the feeling that other people might start to see her like that as well.
Unless they used stooges .. Still not favor of that…
What if people woujld get 25 pounds if they tell store management that they saw someone steal something … How many would spy around for those shoplifters ? According to the shops you could possibly make a nice income with that. The knife in your back from the one you ratted on is a minor backdraft ofcourse … Or do we have better things to do (just like the shop manager/employees apparently …).
Good job Derren ‘outed’ himself in that interview a few months back then really isn’t it, as a bit of a young ‘clepto’.
Although really… it’d appear he’s since moved on to much bigger and better ‘swag’, plus now gets paid to do it, lol