Hi all.

I've done numerous google searches about this and I keep getting led back to this forum so I hope someone can offer me a bit of advice?

Basically my mum got banned for shoplifting in Sainsburys. Now we have a letter from DWF (which I was expecting because I started googling as soon as she told me what had happened) and their breakdown is as follows:

Value of goods stolen: £35.15

Value of goods damaged: £0.00

Value of cash stolen: £0.00

Security costs: £150.00

Amount now due: £185.15

From reading the other posts on here, I know that most of the time people are advised to ignore these letters or write back denying liability. My concern is the "Value of goods stolen" part. All of the other letters I've seen have "£0.00" written there but hers doesn't. Should I still go the ignore/deny liability route or do I need to do something else?

(PS. I am handling this for her as she is really not capable.)

Ignore. Completely. Plenty of other threads here from people in the same situation

Security costs ??

Apparently they cant charge for those anyway !

And if the goods were returned ??

Yes, everything was returned. I heard they couldn't charge the security costs fee but I wasn't sure about the "Value of goods stolen" part. Like I said, the letters I've seen posted here usually don't list an amount there but hers does. I wasn't sure if that made it a more complicated matter or something?

I would love to just ignore this but it's kind of scary.

Ignore it. All they can do is scare you. Read other threads. All that would happen is scary letters will be sent. They have no basic for any collection action.

Lets be clear, the owners of the goods recovered them all in saleable condition so there is nothing to pay for the goods. Security costs are paid anyway as that is the job the people are paid for. It might be different if till staff had to deal with the matter but this wasnt the case so no money owed for that.

All of the above is between you and Sainsburys so even if the goods were ruined and the staff hours chargeable you would still owe DWF absolutely nothing because they havent suffered any losses. They have no right to claim anything from anyone so ignore them.

Lets be clear, the owners of the goods recovered them all in saleable condition so there is nothing to pay for the goods. Security costs are paid anyway as that is the job the people are paid for. It might be different if till staff had to deal with the matter but this wasnt the case so no money owed for that.

All of the above is between you and Sainsburys so even if the goods were ruined and the staff hours chargeable you would still owe DWF absolutely nothing because they havent suffered any losses. They have no right to claim anything from anyone so ignore them.

Right on the money there. Nobody can touch you. Sainsburys wont because there is no loss, no costs incurred, so no claim. As far as sainsburys is concerned, they forgot about you the second you left the store.

Hi and welcome from me.

DWF seem to be bit players in the world of retail civil recovery with RLP being the biggest. The advice is exactly the same as advised above.

There may be another way of getting rid of this. Your Mums mental health. If she is under the doctor for this and has suitable proof, you could send DWF this and they should cancel this as they have a legal duty to treat vulnerable people sympathetically.

If you are OK with handling this, you can still ignore as it won't go anywhere but just to be clear, They cannot chase for goods recovered suitable for resale.

While this thread is about DWF, I created a thread about RLP and the advice within it will relate remains valid.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?448994-RLP-FAQ-s.-What-do-they-mean&p=4762870&viewfull=1#post4762870

I hope this helps.