So she had already paid for goods, but not received the correct ones? Not really shoplifting, is it?
"The row broke out after the woman was denied a refund and tried to take replacement items from the shop".
I had exactly the same happen to me years ago, around 1990. I bought a rugby shirt in Benetton. Cost £35 which wasn’t cheap at the time, When Mrs Mottie washed it according to instructions, the red stripe on the collar run into the white. Mrs Mottie took it back twice and was fobbed off by the manager saying it had to be sent back to Italy for inspection. I got on the phone to him and after a few harsh words he told me to come up for a replacement at a certain time. I went down with my son who was only about 4 at the time. When I got there the manager wasn’t there and they didn’t know when he would be - he was clearly giving us the runaround. I asked for a bit of paper, gave them my name, address and phone number, threw the f'cking shirt at the assistant, took another shirt from the rack and went to leave the shop. They tried to stop me leaving by snatching my son from me and holding the door shut. I grabbed him back, flung the door open knocking one of them flying, went home, job done.
Later that day I got a call from the police to go up the police station, I did and they arrested me on the spot and charged me with assault. I told them about them grabbing my son but they weren’t interested. When I went to court, I told my story including them snatching my son and the police not doing anything and the beak stopped the proceedings and ordered that the person that grabbed my son be charged with assault!
Long story short, The cps said if I dropped those charges and agreed to be bound over, that would be it. I said yes, went to court, got bound over and that was it - or so I thought. The cps 'forgot' to drop the charges against me, went ahead with the court case without telling me, I got found guilty in my absence and fined £115! I phoned up the court to complain but was told to quash that I would have to go to a higher court so I just gave up. So, a £35 shirt, £115 fines and worse of all, the shirt I grabbed was the wrong size so I gave it to my mate and he took the pîss out of me every time he wore it!
On a totally unrelated matter, that Benneton shop had its locks superglued and windows broken quite a few times in the months following that incident.