Bizarre row at Wimbledon A row is blowing up over the "appalling abuse" of security at Wimbledon where officials confiscate food if they compete with the products of the tennis tournament's official sponsors.
Yesterday officials seized two pots of yoghurt and two milkshakes from a woman as she entered the ground, and was told she could collect them when she left.
But now Liberal Democrat MP Bob Russell (Colchester) has protested about this practice which he regards as an offshoot of what he calls the "captive audience syndrome" where patrons in theatres pay "excessive prices" for ice cream and drinks which would cost a fraction outside.
He said: "It is an appalling abuse of security procedures where you can stop people taking their own nourishment into Wimbledon to try, presumably, to force them to use the expensive outlets inside.
"We all recognise there have to be security checks at events like this, but these should not be used to confiscate people's private property."
Mr Russell, a former sports spokesman for his party, said that if this had happened to him, he would certainly stand his ground.
He said that before the inspection of bags became a routine security procedure, no one would have dreamed of confiscating property like this.
A spokesman for the All England Club said this policy operated where items of food had been given away by "ambush marketeers" to people queuing up to go in so they could get their products into the ground and hopefully shown on television, thus competing with the real sponsors.
He added: "If an item is a genuine part of someone's picnic who has come up, perhaps, from Cornwall for the day, then that presents no problem and would not be confiscated.
"We try to do it with sensitivity," he added.
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