Man arrested after store mix-up

A man has told how a mix up at an Essex supermarket led to him being arrested on suspicion of theft.

Simon Brasch, 42, was arrested at his Chelmsford home by police investigating the theft of a TV from a Tesco store.

Mr Brasch's car was parked outside the store and was involved in a minor accident at the same time the plasma TV thief was making off in another car.

Security staff had noted the details of both vehicles then accidentally mixed them up.

Officers arrived at Mr Brasch's home at 0300 BST and he spent the next 11 hours in police custody.

We are getting in touch with the customer, as we fully sympathise with what must have been a deeply upsetting experience Tesco statement

He said: "At first I was shocked and thought it may have been about the incident with the car.

"Then it clicked - security guard had my details, someone's done something in the store, he's mixed up my details on the log sheet and I said to the police that is what's happened.

"They tried to take my fingerprints during the night. I refused. In the end they came and said I was being released.

"I think its primarily Tesco's fault for mixing up their records but if the police had listened to me in the beginning and hadn't assumed I was guilty from the start... they could have resolved it a lot sooner."

Essex Police said they acted in good faith on the information Tesco gave them.

They said they had apologised and would speak to Mr Brasch about the case.

In a statement Tesco said: "We are getting in touch with the customer, as we fully sympathise with what must have been a deeply upsetting experience."

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