Girl held after nail polish test

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/kent/7514222.stm

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The mother of a 12-year-old girl who was questioned by police after she tried on some nail varnish at a chemist has accused the store of overreacting.

Hannah Gilbert was detained by security staff at a Boots in Folkestone, Kent, after she applied some polish from a bottle that was not a tester.

Kent Police were called and, while her parents travelled to join her, she was questioned on suspicion of shoplifting.

In a statement, Boots said staff had worked to "ensure a quick resolution".

Hannah's mother, Cheryl Gilbert, said her daughter would never knowingly steal anything. No-one should ever go to Boots again because I thought that was completely horrible Hannah Gilbert

"Do we criminalise all children for minor events like this? I know Hannah's not a thief."

She said it had wasted seven adults' time, police time and branded her daughter's treatment "heavy-handed".

Hannah said: "I saw a nail varnish that looked quite nice and decided to put a tiny bit on my thumb because there were no testers, just to see what it looked like.

"And as soon as it touched my finger there was a security guard behind me and he said 'This counts as stealing because it's not a tester'."

When asked if she had learnt any lessons, she replied: "That police completely waste their time and no-one should ever go to Boots again because I thought that was completely horrible."

Boots said staff had followed set procedures and worked with Hannah and local police to "ensure a quick resolution".

Kent Police said it was a civil matter and a female officer had helped calm and resolve the situation.

Stephen Jakobi, of Children Aren't Criminals, said: "You've got to be sure a crime is being committed you can't just call the police and start invoking procedures like this unless they've got pretty good evidence that a crime has been committed.

"If for example she'd pocketed the nail polish that would be pretty good evidence but the rest of it was clearly a civil matter and indicative of a social attitude that we've got towards young children."