A man was ordered to leave a supermarket in London after staff misidentified him using controversial new facial recognition technology.

Warren Rajah was told to abandon his shopping and leave the local store he has been using for a number of years after an “Orwellian” error in a Sainsbury’s in Elephant and Castle, London.

“One of the reasons I was angry was because I shouldn’t have to prove I am innocent,” Rajah said. “I shouldn’t have to prove I’m wrongly identified as a criminal.” He described the incident as feeling “quite like Minority Report, Orwellian”.

He said while doing his normal shop, he was approached by three members of the store’s staff, one of whom appeared to affirm that he was the person pictured on a device they had. It is understood the Facewatch system flagged someone else who had entered the store, and staff mistook Rajah for him.

Rajah was concerned some form of permanent record implying he had been involved in criminality might have been created on Facewatch’s system. Eventually, the firm told him he was not on its database and referred him back to Sainsbury’s.

“You felt quite helpless in the situation because you’re just thrown from pillar to post – because Sainsbury’s initially blame Facewatch, then Facewatch retort saying it’s actually Sainsbury’s,” he said. “And then, when Sainsbury’s called me on Wednesday from the executive office, they blamed the store staff. So they’re constantly shifting the blame as to who’s responsible for this.”

Read More: ‘Orwellian’: Sainsbury’s staff using facial recognition tech eject innocent shopper