A SIX-year-old boy was thrown out of a Braintree Tesco shop by a security guard for not wearing a T-shirt.
Paula Seaborn, 44, of Whitley Avenue, was shopping in the Marks Farm store with her son Harry last Sunday, when she was asked to cover him up or leave.
"We went past the checkouts and heard someone behind us say 'excuse me', I turned around and a lady security officer said 'I'm going to have to ask you to leave the store'.
"I asked why and all they would say is that it was store policy.
"They said that if he put something on they would let us stay but I didn't have anything with me, it was such a hot day.
"I wasn't going to kick up a fuss in front of him, but I refused to leave until he picked out a toy."
Harry was then made to wait outside the shop with his father Colin, 43, while Mrs Seaborn paid.
"It's ridiculous and it's a ridiculous policy – kids that age go to the beach or the shops half-naked all the time – he wasn't harming anyone, he's only six," added the mother-of-five.
"We've never had a problem like this before and he's been in the same store without a T-shirt quite a lot in the past."
Mrs Seaborn put in a formal complaint via the company's customer service site and received a phone call to say Tesco would be looking into the matter.
A Tesco spokesman said: "We do usually ask that all customers are clothed when shopping, including children, but on this occasion we were happy to let our customer and her son finish choosing a toy before paying and leaving, which our customer seemed happy with at the time."
