First of all, and as most people say, I'm really embarassed of what happened but for me has been a lesson that I will never forget. The 25th of september me and a friend of mine were in the Primark of Oxford Street and we decuded to steal a few number of items because everybody told us that was really easy. When we were about to exit the store, two guards were waiting for us and started to shout us. We were obliged to go to a dark and close room on the ground floor, and we were there for ablut 1 hour & half. It was an awful experience. First of all, they started to say that they were going to call the police, and made us to show all of our bags. They started to intimidate and make us feel really bad. They said that we were caught because we acted very nerviously, and that we had a guard spying on us. They asked for our ID, our data and were really worried about where we were living, going to the internet to verify that our residence actually existed. That's because we are french and we are havun an exchange program here, in december we will go back to France (furthermore, they started to say that all french were thieves). In total, I stoled 40£ and my friend 55£, they had a ticket of all the clothes that we tried to steal. After that, the guards were all the time laughing and asking questions as if we had boyfriend. They said that they wanted ti date us someday. I had the worst time of my life, feeling unprotected and coherted of my freedom. They said that they were going to make us a "favour" and not to call the police, and that we were going to receive a letter in 3 weeks. Also, they said that if we decided to not pay the police would be able to knock on our door. Yesterday (18th October) I received a letter asking to pay 260£ in total (my friend and I). They say they require a respone within 21 days from the date of the letter (7th October!!!! I really don't have time to collect so much money!. I don't kow what is the best that we can do. I know the quantity is not disproportionate, but I just don't have the money. My questions are: 1) the fact that I received the letter and not my friend makes me more responsible if I ignore the correspondence? 2) are they going to take me to court if I am in another country at the time? 3) will they use my french address on my ID to continue harrassing me with letter? 4) will it affect to my possibilities to find work in uk? The letter says that probably yes 5) what is beter, ignoring or answering? Thank you in advance for reading it, I hope I can fix this problem soon...