A mum was told to leave her local supermarket after being accused of buying a scratchcard for her five-year-old son. Carla Ria was in Asda with her son Vito on Saturday when she tried to buy a lottery card at a kiosk.
As her son is autistic and obsessed with letters and numbers Carla asked him to pick a number to help her decide which one to buy. The cashier refused to hand over the scratchcard.
Carla told GlasgowLive: "Vito is obsessed with numbers so I asked him to pick a number in a private conversation between the two of us. When I tried to buy it, the cashier refused to serve me.
"It's not like I handed the money or my bank card to my five-year-old son to purchase the ticket. I simply turned to him, in private, to ask what a lucky number was for him.
"I asked to speak to the manager who agreed with the cashier. By this point, Vito was getting distressed and had run away to hide behind a wall. It was all unfolding in front of other customers.
"The manager then asked me to leave the store as if I had done something wrong. It was so humiliating and left Vito distraught."
Carla called the supermarket's customer service line and was given an apology. She said: "I understand the law on this issue but in no way is this justified behaviour.
"It’s totally unreasonable. I contacted customer service as well as forwarding a further complaint on the matter to Asda and had a phone call from the secondary manager on shift who apologised for the incident after checking the CCTV and seeing the effect it had on my son.
"He said that the manager at the time had agreed with me but was obliged to back up his staff member.
"The way I was dealt with was embarrassing and humiliating, as a successful businesswoman who has employees and deals with customers on a daily basis to be looked down on in such a way is terrible."
Asda declined to comment on the case, but said that it is illegal to sell a scratchcard by proxy to a child.
