Mum Jan Bennett who pledged her undying loyalty to supermarket giant Tesco in a TV docu-soap has switched to arch rivals Sainsbury.

A row started after Jan, of Banbury, and her family were seen on TV eating goods before they had paid for them.

She confessed on national TV her obsession for the Tesco store in her town, but has defected after being threatened with a ban.

With the backing of the chain, Jan, 35, featured on ITV's Britain's Worst Shoppers show, talking of her addiction for the store and how she spends nearly all her time there.

But tempers flared after supermarket bosses viewed the footage of the broadcast on February 19 and did not like what they saw. Banbury store manager Andrew Lamb told her staff and customers had complained that the programme showed before she had paid for her goods at the store:

* She broke off a piece of french bread and fed it to her five-year-old daughter Jeannie

* She took one or more hazelnut whirl from the pick 'n' mix and ate it

* Jeannie munched on a carrot and took grapes from a bunch on the shelves

Jan, a single parent, of Danesmoor, Banbury, has vowed never to set foot in the shop again after Mr Lamb told her she would be banned if caught doing it again.

She claimed all the items were later paid for.

She said: "I did what most mothers do - when my children are hungry I let them have a munch to stop them crying but I always pay for it.

"After all the publicity we gave them we have got a kick in the teeth." Jan, who has previously also been featured in the Oxford Mail, said she had been going to the store nearly every day, for nine years.

She said she and her mum Jeanette, 66, who lives next door, met outside their houses and went with Jan's girls, Jeannie, five, Shannah, two, and Nisha, one, to begin their shopping routine.

The family viewed the store as a social club and and sometimes didn't even go to buy food - just to have a coffee or chat to the staff, all of whom they knew.

But she said the threat had ruined everything.

"It was like a thump in the stomach. I go in there day in and day out and it was always a friendly store. I felt I was allowed to do that," she said. " I am not going to that store again - I am going to Sainsbury now."

Mum Jeanette added: "I feel as if I have been labelled a thief. I am devastated."

Andrew Coker, of Tesco, said the film had given the impression to customers it was all right to take things off the shelves before they had paid for them.

He said: "We take a very dim view of people helping themselves to our produce before they have paid for them and reserve the right to ask people to leave."

Story date: Wednesday 10 March

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