Sorry this is quite a long post.

A few weeks ago i was in Superdrug with my 2 year old daughter in her buggy. I placed one packet of non branded sanitary towels (worth less than £1) on the hood of the buggy with full intention to pay. I became distracted looking at other items in store and dealing with my daughter's pestering for crisps and totally forgot the item was there. I left the store and was swiftly brought back by security.

To my horror not only had I left the shop having forgotten about the item, but the packet of sanitary towels was unconcealed on top of my buggy for the whole high street to see; extremely embarrassing on all fronts.

I was then shocked when 3 police officers turned up to question me. Having seen the situation one officer asked the security guard if it was a joke and the security guard even apologised to the officers for calling them out. On more than one occasion I offered all parties the opportunity to search my bags, i had about £80 of receipted goods on me from other shops, plus cash and debit cards in my purse, but this offer was ignored. Needless to say the police left without any action, however Superdrug have branded me guilty without investigation and banned me from all their shops. I’m sure you have all already guessed this part too, but my details were also passed to the RLP.

The SD manager kept away from the “action”, i had to ask to see him. As i asked he happened to be passing through, so i told him what happened. He just shrugged and walked off. A credit to Superdrug i’m sure you’ll agree.

I contact SD, who told me they would investigate the issue with their security company. I also wrote to their security company to complain. The upshot of several letters back and forth to both companies is that neither want to get involved, and they have now referred me to the RLP. I have received a £87 fine from RLP, to which i have replied to them strongly denying the allegations and requesting they remove my details from their system.

During correspondence with Superdrug they advised me the stories of their manager and security guard do not tally up (i.e. one of them is telling lies) yet they don’t see a need to get to the bottom of that and continue with their allegations. I have requested a meeting or call with all involved but this has been ignored. SD also maintain that the store manager is not prepared to revoke the store ban either, no doubt because this highlights the mistakes he made in this case.

Superdrug do not want to engage in discussions about this, and blindly refer me to the RLP. This is obviously a downward spiral. I’m not worried about the threats of being taken to court – i’d welcome the opportunity to discuss this in front of an impartial judge, but i’m not happy about making an appearance of their “dishonesty” database. I’m a professional contractor, so change job frequently. Having my details on this database could ruin my career and source of income. I’m toying with the idea of initiating court proceedings against Superdrug for making these false allegations available to anyone who cares to pay the RLP subsidiary for it, is this not libel?

Has anyone got any advice or recommendations of where i go from here? As i said before i am fully prepared to take this as far as i have to, not only for me but to stop them doing this to other people.

Thanks for reading my story of woe and thanks in advance for any advice you may be able to give

RLP can't fine anyone - only a court can do that. RLP's business model is speculative invoicing; they send you a bill which they hope you will be scared into paying.

You have two options:

1. Ignore them. They may send a few more letters, but they are extremely unlikely to take the court action they threaten.

2. Send them a simple, short letter explaining that you have not been convicted of any crime, and therefore will neither pay them any money or enter into any correspondence with them. Then ignore them.

The database to which RLP refer is something of a damp squib. They say that employers refer to it, but we've never heard of one that has. Paying RLP does not affect whether or not they put your details on the database.

Hi sg

Heres a link to interesting info, http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/search.htm?query=rlp&pr=Corporate&prox=page&rorder=500&rprox=500&rdfreq=500&rwfreq=500&rlead=500&rdepth=0&sufs=1&order=r&cq=&jump=

Thanks for your comments, much appreciated. I have no intention of paying them anything and have already told them so (no reply yet), my only slight concern is if the address i live at gets black listed from the bailiffs.

This entire incident is ruining my life, i can't sleep properly, it's affecting my work and i don't like going out with my friends because it's always in my mind and i can't relax. I haven't told anyone about this except for my partner. I haven't even done anything wrong but they've made me feel ashamed!

Does anyone know if there is any way i can sue Superdrug for instigating this libel against me. Depending on the cost and practicalities it would be worth it to make these stores think twice in future.

I was interviewed by the police whilst in tears in front of my toddler because the store manger hasn't got the common sense to see a mistake. What shop lifter walks out with an unconcealed packet of economy sanitary towels, surely a first! I don't want to have to sit back and be threatened for months until it eventually fizzles out.

I have also written to the CAB today so they can add this to their campaign and am planning to contact my MP.

Rebel11 - Thanks for the CAB RLP form, i hadn't seen that direct link before. Will be filling it in straight away :0)

To be brutally honest I'm not sure that trying to sue Superdrug will do any more than prolong what you're going through. Slander (libel is printed or otherwise published) is notoriously difficult to bring an action on; most barristers want a minimum £100k up front, such are the risks.

I suggest that in a fairly short time you will see this incident in a different perspective. You made a mistake, and then Superdrug made a bigger one. You were exonerated, however, and the reality is that everyone else involved has almost certainly forgotten about it. I don't doubt that it made you feel dreadful, but it'll pass.

Hi sg

I agree with SP, the main reason why I posted the link was to give you examples of other people who have gone through the RLP situation.

Thanks all, your point is taken.

It just riles me that they are allowed to say whatever they want without providing proof. Real criminals actually get a hearing. I still have a couple of avenues to investigate to clean up this mess, if they come to anything useful i'll re-post to hopefully help anyone else who falls foul of this.

Thanks for your time

This will back fire on retailers big time, CAB are independent, so they are having an influence. Do report back on your efforts.

Dear, Then what did you do about it? Did you pay the sum to RLP?

Please note, i lost my login so have created a new acc to update my original post.

Sorry i should have sent an update earlier, but to be honest it's been nice not thinking about this for a while, it hasn't been one of my highlights.

I engaged in communications with Superdrug customer services and the security co - Stealth Security, but seemed to be going around in circles with each referring me to the other or RLP. The store manager and security guard had discrepancies in their stories which made it even more difficult to resolve this. I then emailed the Superdrug CEO, to his credit he requested a further investigation and i was put in contact with their legal department. The case was then dropped and customer services sent me a £50 gift voucher. I also gave details of this case to the CAB, who have were very supportive. Richard Dunstan recommended asking for all the info they held relating to my case which i did. I eventually received a large folder of emails, plus the forms which were sent to the RLP. I found some discrepancies on the RLP form sent by Stealth Security, it said i'd admitted guilt and i'd concealed items within my pushchair. Both are untrue. The biggest shock i got was were the guard and manager had both said the police had told them someone of my name and the same situation has been caught earlier that week and they wanted to see me to confirm if it was me or not. For the record, it most certainly was not me, and the coincidence is pretty high that i question if this comment is true (especially as other lies had been written about me). The strange thing is they made a big deal about this comment in their correspondence to each other (there was a note there not to tell me this information), yet no-one bothered to confirm the police response when they did see me. I emailed Stealth Security to try and have this clarified in writing but the manager there is no longer replying to my emails. Hmmm

Anyway, i hope this information is useful to anyone else out there in a similar position.

Well done s.green, thanks for updating.

Might be worth a last letter to RLP to tell them that superdrug have appologised for their actions and withdrawn their allegations and that you expect all data that RLP hold about you to be removed from their systems and a certificate of destruction sent to you ...It might not achieve much, but it might make them squirm a little

Might be worth a last letter to RLP to tell them that superdrug have appologised for their actions and withdrawn their allegations and that you expect all data that RLP hold about you to be removed from their systems and a certificate of destruction sent to you ...It might not achieve much, but it might make them squirm a little

Ignore them; they cannot enforce the fine as you have not been convicted of any crime. Why not go to a no win, no fee solicitor and have them write to them and demand that they clear your name, remove you from all of these database things and apologise with compensation? They may not listen to you, but solicitors know of ways of speaking to these people to sort things out. Your local law society should be able to advise of a good local solicitor in the area of law that you need. And there is no such thing as a black list; bailiffs make false claims in this matter and they do not have any powers if you do not owe the money. Do not let them in and ignore them as well. These people try all sorts of tricks, but most of them are illegal. I am sure that you will get it sorted, but it is really worrying and you must be very anxious. Make sure you get a lot of damages for this: these idiots have damaged your reputation and hurt your professional name and slandered you needlessly. They have also caused you a lot of time and inconvenience and they deserve everything that your solicitor can think to throw at them. For the humiliation alone; they deserve to be taken down an peg or two. Good luck.

Ignore them; they cannot enforce the fine as you have not been convicted of any crime.

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They're not enforcing a fine, nor do they threaten to.

What a retail loss preventer does is offer the option of settling out of court, an option that the vast majority of individuals accused of shoplifting are glad enough to accept because a xxxxxxxxx is not the sort of person with the courage to stand up before a judge to defend himself and expect to win.

If you rather expect the Court to see it from your point of view, the thing to do is raise the stakes, from the start. Tell them to put up or shut up, to lay their information before a Magistrate in order to try the case if they get so far as that.

Once you have done as much as that, the advice to take no notice of what you hope is an empty threat would be that much more appropriate. Otherwise, if they did eventually proceed to act, you would not have helped yourself by talking no notice.

That is not the sort of conduct to win the sympathy of a judge.