The black veteran banned Morrisons due to allegations of theft

A former police sergeant who was banned from every Morrisons store in the UK after being wrongly accused of shoplifting has apologised.

Jez Daniels believes he was “racially profiled” by staff who accused him of acting suspiciously while buying rosé wine and chocolates at a shop in Newport.

He said he was wearing a face mask due to Covid restrictions at the time, adding: “They saw a black guy with his face covered and assumed he must be here to steal.”

Morrisons said it did not want to comment.

Mr Daniels, a 40-year-old RAF veteran, said he was now “very uncomfortable” in supermarkets.

In February 2022, during the Covid pandemic, he was tracked around the Morrisons store in Rogerstone, Newport.

“We were wearing a surgical-style face mask – in line with store policy as well as Welsh Government legislation,” Mr Daniels said.

He had intended to buy wine and chocolate for his children – but said he found out staff were following him.

“I knew right away they decided I was a thief,” he said.

“I thought, OK, well, if I keep doing what I’m doing, the staff will realize I’m not trying to steal – and they’ll leave me alone.”

She then grabbed some crisps and said she even held her shopping bag open to show she wasn’t trying to hide anything.

Mr Daniels, who served as a police officer in two forces and was also a volunteer firefighter, said: “They cornered me in the corridor.

“They had staff at each end – I started to fear for my safety.”

He decided to leave, when he was approached by an employee who told him that he was also forbidden to leave.

“I was very disappointed,” he added.

“To be honest, I think it’s because they saw a black guy with his face covered and then assumed he must be here to steal.”

He contacted Morrisons’ head office but said he felt “used” by their response.

BBC Wales has seen an email from the company to Mr Daniels, which says: “You can no longer shop with us or enter a Morrisons store.

“The reason for this decision is due to your recently observed behavior in the store.”

In other documents seen by BBC Wales, a member of staff described Mr Daniels as shouting “aggressive abusive words”.

Another employee said they became suspicious when he “entered the store without a basket or trolley”, and went “straight to the liquor aisle”.

Mr Daniels said he was charged and took £200 worth of spirits – something he denies.

“Since the Morrisons incident, I’ve spoken to a lot of people, white people,” he said.

“I told them some of the things that Morrisons said were suspicious – and they say ‘but I do that, I’ve never been stopped’.

Mr Daniels runs a cyber security business from his office in Newport and counts the UK government among his clients.

He used his professional knowledge to make a Data subject access request – this required the supermarket to provide CCTV footage and staff statements about it.

After viewing the CCTV footage, Mr Daniels said he “felt vindicated”.

He said he began to doubt his memory of what happened, but added: “The CCTV footage matched my recollection of events, it did not show what Morrisons claimed.

“They didn’t show me that I was aggressive. They didn’t show me abandoning the carts. They didn’t show me £200 worth of spirits.

“Even just talking about it now is triggering.”

Mr Daniels then confronted Morrisons with his own footage.

BBC Wales has seen an email from the company admitting “discrepancies in the statements provided by the store and what the CCTV footage shows” – but did not comment on allegations that £200 worth of alcohol was consumed.

The email said “as a gesture of goodwill” it was lifting the ban, but went on to accuse Mr Daniels of “acting suspiciously” and behaving aggressively.

It added that there was “no racial motivation behind the complaint” and a member of staff denied being racist.

Mr Daniels said he now wants an apology and an acknowledgment that what happened was wrong.

He said: “They insisted it was my fault – what I would like now is an acknowledgment from Morrisons that their staff were wrong.”

He now tries to avoid supermarkets, with the incident leaving him feeling “anxious and fearful”.

“It’s just the whole supermarket environment, I feel very uncomfortable in it, so I shop online,” he said.

Mr Daniels is so concerned about “racial consumer profiling” – where shoppers believe they are being approached because of the color of their skin – that he has taught his children “defensive techniques” to avoid being accused of theft.

“It’s not a new phenomenon — we’ve lived here all our lives,” he said.

“It’s only been in the last five years that the rest of society has started to recognize that it really exists.”