Hi,

Ok, so this is probably the stupidest thread on here, come from a 21 year old guy (You'll see why in a few minutes)

On sept 4th I went into primark with my best friend (She's a chick) and we were shopping around primark, we bought a few things as we were going to a festival and on our way out my friend decided she needed some eyelashes, the queue was absolutely massive so I decided to take them from her and just put them in my bag. Stupid move. Anyways, long story short we got caught and they took us both into a room in the back.

They took a copy of our provisionals and then told us we would both be fined, but nothing more than £20 or so as the total we attempted to steal came to like... £11 or something stupid like that (My friend put ear rings in her bag too or something idk)

They didn't call the police or anything, she said that because we have proof of ID and address the police aren't needed. She went on to say that we will be fined, and the problems only arise if you refuse to pay the fine they decide on.

The letter came from RLP and they want £174.39 and begin to list options such as

- You can pay the full £174.39

- If you cannot pay it, we may offer instalments

etc etc etc etc

I've read a few thread on RLP on here, but still not sure what action we should take. My friend wants to be a nurse and can't have a criminal record - so she just wants to pay it, but I'm not looking on paying half, especially for eyelashes SHE asked me to steal. Lmao!

So, what should I do, pay this thing or send them a letter back? Can any of you guys help me out?

(Any pre-made letter layouts or anything I could copy/paste would be awesome)

Getting a fair few views but no replies, can nobody help?

You can either ignore them or send them the simple one line letter saying that any liability to them is denied.

What's this one liner, and will I continue to get letters after I send it?

Youll get letters for a few months. Increasing in length and threatening language. Nothing will come of it though. The woman who runs the company is well known here, and even though pretty much every defended case she has tried to get into court has been shot down by the judges, she still refuses to give up, saying the courts are wrong and she is right.

The one liner is simply:

Any liability to you or any third party is denied. No further correspondance will be entered into. Should you continue to communicate with me, i reserve the right to take legal action for harassment

Jackie seems to think she is part of the legal system, when she has absolutely NOTHING to do with it at all. Doesnt stop her trying though.

Will this end up going to court though, if I keep ignoring the letters?

I will send the one liner tomorrow and see what reply I get - My friend is the one who got the letter, will the letter be sent to both addresses?

(Also @renegadeimp would you mind if I directly message you over these forums in the future regarding any further letters I may receive, you seem to know what you're talking about)

The one liner is

"Any liability to either you or any company that you represent is denied"

They WILL write to you again....lots - and each letter will be more threatening in its tone and will use ever more legal jargon to convince you that if you don't pay up then you will lose all of your possessions and that your first born child will be sacrificed. They are that desperate for you to pay them money which they are not legally entitled to claim - or to receive. It ISN'T a fine - only a Court can do that and Primark had the option to involve police, but chose not to. RLP will now claim that this is irrelevant and that you owe them for the cost of security and the diversion of staff from their normal duty - even though Security were doing exactly what is their normal function.

RLP cannot sue you, only Primark can do that, but they won't as they would be stuffed in a properly contested hearing, so you will get letters, and then a debt collector will also write to you, however as there is no actual 'debt' to collect, they are equally powerless. RLP will then write to say that they are recommending that their client takes legal action to recover the money, and at that point correspondence will most likely stop.

Oh - and RLP will almost certainly write to tell you off for taking 'bad' legal advice from CAG. They don't like us because it stops a major source of their ill-gotten revenue, so take pleasure in reading up cases here and identifying who you are.

Please do not deal with this via private message - if you feel the need to put stuff up which cannot go on the forum please do so via the Site Team - it keeps everything above board and transparent.

It is very unlikely it will go to court. Jackie seems to like DCA's now. But theyre easily shooed away with one letter. If it does get to court, the defence you have is very simple and tried and tested. See the oxford case last year.

Regarding direct messaging, it might be better to keep all messages to this thread. That way, others can provide their input too. If you are worried about specific letters, scan them up and ask for a site admin to check them over for you first.

@Sidewinder - Ok, thanks for your reply, really appreciate it!

@Renegade - Hmmm, It's my friend that is stressing out a lot more than I am, I think she just wants to pay it and get it all over with, but I'm not gonna do that. I will send the one liner and wait for the reply from RLP, then hopefully ask for advice on how I should reply to the next BS letter I will receive. I hope it doesn't go to court, that's just lots of effort and inconvenience for me

My friend is suggesting to write to Primark to say something along the lines of

"The woman at primark told us that she said we would be fined no more than £20, and that the conversation was recorded... the woman at primark told us it would not be more than £20 and we've been charged £170 or something"

but what will this achieve?

My friend is suggesting to write to Primark to say something along the lines of

 

"The woman at primark told us that she said we would be fined no more than £20, and that the conversation was recorded... the woman at primark told us it would not be more than £20 and we've been charged £170 or something"

 

but what will this achieve?

Hello there.

I'm afraid I don't think this will achieve anything more than further hassle. If you get involved in correspondence, it just prolongs things. It's a shame the woman at Primark said that, but it could be that either she didn't know or she had another agenda.

Stick to the one-liner as suggested earlier and please have a read around the forum about how previous posters have got on.

My best, HB

It will achieve nothing.

As far as the store is concerned the matter is over.

It is RLP that will be contacting you and it is they who you will need to deal with as advised above.

I've been looking around, can't really seem any previous posts on here with the end result and what happened, could anyone link me?

Yeah I'm trying to tell my friend but she's very frantic, like a typical chick... lol

Yeah I'm trying to tell my friend but she's very frantic, like a typical chick... lol

Ahem. Men panic too, you know.

HB

Hahaha, very true.

I think she's got her mind on paying, I've told her I'm not going to pay - and that we should do what I'm told on here.. I think it's just because the letters are going to her house, not mine, although... I think I might get one soon... haha

Follow the advice at the start of the thread. If rlp get paid then you legitimise their business model and pay for them to harass others.

We dont condone shoplifting on cag but equally we don't condone rlps borderline criminal practices either.

Follow the advice at the start of the thread. If rlp get paid then you legitimise their business model and pay for them to harass others.

 

We dont condone shoplifting on cag but equally we don't condone rlps borderline criminal practices either.

I wouldn't call RLP's tactics borderline criminal, Imp; what they do isn't illegal, though the Law Commission thinks that the civil recovery industry, in which RLP is the main player, uses "misleading and aggressive" methods. RLP are unpleasant bullies, without doubt, in my view, but they are not criminals.

please be careful what you say, Imp - we wouldn't want to give The repellent Jackie another opportunity to demonstrate the Streisand Effect, would we?

My letter came through the post today, basically just a copy of my friends.

Where can I find some threads on here of people that have been in my position and what happened at the end? I've been browsing the forums but haven't found any which were updated as the time went on

Hi

I can't help with links I'm afraid but what I can say is that as there is no definite end date to the begging letters no-one actually knows when RLP give up. Usually it is after the DCA gets involve (and possibly their pet solicitor for hire) that it is coming to and end. This can be a few months down the line so threads dry up.

Please don't think this is bad news. It just means there is nothing to add.

It may be worth someone (NOT ME) going through the RLP threads to see how many threads where there is no activity and chase them up with the Original Poster. You may be pleasantly surprised.

On to the possibility of court action. I have been on this forum for about 5 years and I am yet to see a case where Primark have taken court action.

RLP would prefer you to think it was them taking the action (it's not) hence the reason the post of the 'few' cases on their website (the majority of the cases being employee theft-big difference to shoplifting) Also, the only time I have seen a court case by primark was when it was a very serious crime and the police were involved.

Basically as you have been told, this is just a money making exercise with no legal standing. If RLP don't like that statement-well tough titty!

Primark have not won a single case that was defended correctly. All the ones they have 'won' are judgement by default or the defendant had no clue what to do.

Comment from RLP in 2011

It has confirmed that it has never successfully litigated a 'fully contested' county court claim in respect of an unpaid demand.

This hasn't changed as far as I am awrae.

The quote was from here:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2011-03-22b.248.0

I am in a similar situation, please could you update how your case is going? Much appreciated.

Can you create a new thread with your info please. RLP are easily dealt with, but no two situations are alike.

Hi - Just a quick update.

I have received two more letters since I posted this. The second was just a bit more threatening and saying I have a certain number of days to reply since I ignored the first. The third one (which came today) just says as I have ignored the matter can be passed on to the police etc etc.

I never posted the one liner reply, so I'm going to do that today and await another letter they'll undoubtedly send.

As I've been ignoring their letters up to now, do you think I should continue to ignore or reply with

"Any liability to you or any third party is denied. No further correspondance will be entered into. Should you continue to communicate with me, i reserve the right to take legal action for harassment"

Since youve gone this far already, i would still ignore until something of actual substance turns up, and not one of their increasingly desperate begging letters. When they start to go into multiple pages, stating a lot of pseudo legal nonsense and try and say that CAG and other sites are under investigation by the police, then you know you are at the tail end of their threatograms.