Daniel Matthews, 43, suffered a panic attack after being falsely accused of stealing from a Flannels store in Liverpool, where he claims he was held in a basement for 15 minutes and left feeling "degraded and humiliated".
Incident at Flannels Liverpool
Mr Matthews, originally from Waterloo but now living in Crewe, had travelled to Liverpool on Monday, November 2, to meet his mother for dinner. About an hour before their plans, at around 3pm, he decided to visit Flannels to look at its fragrance range.
What began as a quick shopping trip allegedly ended with him being confronted by security guards, taken to the store's basement and searched. Mr Matthews said he had been looking at fragrances from the Initio range, using the testers before applying one. He then went upstairs to look at the Vivienne Westwood collection before returning to the fragrance counter to find the name of a scent he had liked.
Confrontation and Search
He said: "I went back downstairs because I really liked one of the fragrances, and wanted to get the name of it. I took a picture of it on my phone and put the bottle down. As I was walking towards the exit, there was a security guard there with his back to me. As I was about to leave, he turned around and asked if he could have a word with me. He said 'we believe you've stolen something'. My face dropped with shock. I told them I hadn't taken anything, and all I had in my pockets was my headphones and my phone."
Mr Matthews claims four more security guards then came over before he was escorted to the basement. He said: "I was in complete shock. I couldn't believe it. I used to work in Debenhams and John Lewis and I know a lot of the girls that work on the beauty counters. So to walk past them was humiliating."
He claims he was kept in the basement for around 15 minutes, where security staff told him they had CCTV footage of him. He said he was asked to empty his pockets and show the contents of his bag.
"They took me down into the basement and told me there were cameras on me. They asked to search me so I emptied my pockets and shook my coat. I opened my bag and pulled everything out. Then I asked what they were looking for. They said they saw me putting something in my pocket. I said 'yeah, it was my phone.'"
Aftermath and Response
Mr Matthews claims he repeatedly asked the security guards for their names and contact details but was not given them. He said the situation left him increasingly distressed, and he began having a panic attack. He claims he was eventually escorted out of the back of the building and into an alleyway, where a security guard from another company approached and asked if everything was OK.
Mr Matthews said: "They'd obviously communicated it over the comms. All I could think was, all these security guards in every shop in town is going to be keeping an eye out for the lad with the Madonna Blond Ambition jacket with the Louis Vuitton bag and Angry Bird eyebrows."
He described the experience as "so unprofessional", claiming he was not offered an apology or any reassurance following the incident. He added: "It left me feeling really degraded and humiliated, making me out to be a common criminal. You just don't expect to walk into an establishment like that and be treated with no dignity at all. I wouldn't dream of shoplifting, it's not who I am at all."
While Fraser Group declined to comment, the ECHO understands an investigation into the incident is ongoing.
