Aldi staff march mum and daughter, 7, out of shop after wrongly accusing her of stealing vodka

A 'humiliated' mum says Aldi staff snatched her shopping out her hands and took her daughter's sweets after being wrongly accused of stealing vodka.

Leanne Silver was then marched out the shop with her seven-year-old daughter in front of dozens of other customers leaving her mortified.

The manager at the budget supermarket in Salford told Leanne she had been caught on CCTV the previous week with her partner stealing vodka by putting in into a pram.

Bu the 30-year-old protested her innocence, telling the manager that she didn't have a baby - let alone a pram, reports Manchester Evening News.

Eventually, after checkout staff intervened in her defence, Leanne was able to pay for her shopping - but was told by the manager she was not allowed to come back.

"I was so embarrassed," she said. "It was 4pm so the shop was busy. I'd done nothing wrong to be treated like that.

"To take sweets out of my daughter's hands, that's what hurt the most because she was scared, asking what was going on."

Aldi has since apologised for the incident, saying it was a 'case of mistaken identity'.

Leanne says the store is just a few minutes from her home, and she goes in most days for day-to-day things like bread and milk.

"On Wednesday we went in," she added.

"I grabbed what I needed and my daughter picked up some sweets, and then I saw the manager marching over towards me as I was still shopping.

"She snatched the stuff right out of my hands and took the sweets from my daughter and told us to leave because we had been banned.

"I didn't understand what was going on, I asked her why and she said I had been in the week before with my partner and a baby and we had been shoplifting putting vodka into the baby's pram.

"I don't have a baby or a pram.

"I told her it wasn't us, that she must be mistaken, but by this time everyone was stood looking at us.

"The check out staff came over and told the manager 'it's not this lady, we know her she comes in nearly every day,' but the manager said, 'no, it's her,' and told the staff to serve me but then I'd have to leave and wouldn't be allowed in again.

"I pleaded with them to show me the CCTV, I've never stolen anything from anyone. I told the manager repeatedly it wasn't me but she wouldn't believe me.

"I complained to Aldi, I think its really disgusting how they treated me. They needed to be 101% certain before doing something like that.

"It really upset me, I felt humiliated, all those people staring.

"I just don't want it to happen to anyone else."

An Aldi spokesperson said: “This incident was a case of mistaken identity and we apologise to Ms Silver for any embarrassment caused.”