Sports Direct employee wrongly identifies man on facial recognition watchlist

A man who was wrongly identified as a fraudster by a live facial recognition (LFR) system at a Sports Direct store has vowed that he will "never step foot" in the retail outlet again. A staff member at the Rotherham shopping centre had flagged Craig Hadley after mistaking him for a similar-looking, bald and bearded customer who had committed a fraud weeks earlier.

Mr Hadley was escorted from the store and said the incident caused him embarrassment and anxiety. He said he feared his image might appear in other shops and lead to further reputational damage.

The LFR company, Facewatch, which manages the database, deleted Mr Hadley's image after he proved his identity. Sports Direct apologised for what it called a "genuine mistake" and stated it would conduct a formal investigation and provide more staff training.

Mr Hadley acknowledged the initial error was human, but believes there should be more checks and balances when innocent people can be placed on a national database. A Facewatch spokesperson stated the company's watchlists are limited to individuals with strong evidence of criminal activity and that its system is regularly audited for accuracy.