After reading the forums and many websites regarding the RLP I decided everyone should have a massive chuckle at what they are trying on with me.

first and foremost, I am not paying the RLP a penny and just to make this clear after reading these forums I can clearly see that they are not nice.

My case however is slightly different.

in February I was called into a meeting at my workplace and informed that I have reduced an item without authorisation and had cost the company £17.

The interesting thing to note is that the item in question had already been written off at store level as it was a display item,

therefore there was no value to the item already.

I cannot recall this incident and have suffered from a couple of lapses during my employment there,

it was only when I was shown CCTV of me on the till doing it that I knew I had done wrong.

I held up my hands,

said it was out of character

and said I would happily recoup any money lost.

Now you would think after 5 years of employment with little to no issue that this would be that and I would get a slapped wrist right?

Nope. I had a meeting 5 days later to be told that I was sacked for gross misconduct.

Now here is where it gets pretty interesting.

I appealed the decision hoping that they would take into consideration my mental illness (depression and anxiety, lapses) and hopefully reinstate my position within the company.

After writing to try and obtain an appeal meeting,

a week later I get a letter from the lovely people at RLP.

It stated that I had to pay £215 for my actions that caused the company disruption to their business, diversions from normal duties and security costs.

I rang them and said I am not responsible for the loss to the company as one the item was already written off at store level AND I was still awaiting my appeal decision (the fact they sent me a demand for payment BEFORE my appeal seems to me like a threat to drop my appeal honestly).

A week later my appeal falls through and they stand by the decision to dismiss me.

I thought that was that.

No, lo and behold I had another letter today from the RLP.

Here is where I had a massive chuckle,

in the letter they say that the company still has the same position as they did before my appeal and I now have 14 days before civil court action is taken, the usual dribble.

In this letter though it states they had made the claim in the previous letter although the last letter was headed "LETTER BEFORE CLAIM", a chuckle there.

A bigger one was had when in this letter it also stated "the costs are calculated due to security staff members taking part in the investigation".

The store I worked at had NO security staff and fell on all staff to remain vigilant.

they are trying to get money for them doing their normal activities.

For a final point and this is the funniest and most important part of the story,

they have not even filed a report to the police nor have I been contacted by the police never mind been cautioned/warned by them.

All in all I wanted to share this story to show how desperate the RLP are to try and get people to cave into their nature.

Keep up the awesome work informing people on here everyone, you do stellar work.

Also forgot to add, the latest letter is signed by not an individual but by the "claims department"

you've got the right idea

however, you are not quite correct that a 'display item' is a written off item.

it still exists and has a monetary value.

theft of any item is gross misconduct.

whether you consider it worthy or not to your employer.

litter out of the bin would be treated the same.

read the RLP letter carefully

it doesn't say they WILL do anything

Well I think me and you both know as well as most people do who visit here and read this forum, the only thing they will do is waste paper sending me letters

'Drivel' darlings, 'Drivel'.

Not Dribble.........................

Unless of course you are actually dribbling.

Funny (Until it gets deleted!)

H

Here is an update regarding this, I have received a 3rd letter today. Unfortunately cannot upload it however I will gladly write out key points from it.

"You have not disputed the claim, and there are no other circumstances you consider relevant to the incident, the claim needs to be settled."

I actually did dispute the claim via appeal of my employment dismissal as well as telephoning the RLP and stating so as well as accepting no responsibility, only that it was an error made at the time.

"Ignoring this matter will not make this go away and it is not in your best interest to do so either as it could result in further liabilities becoming payable by you."

"The information we hold may be passed onto the Police or other crime initiatives in the interest of preventing and detecting crime.."

"If we do not receive a response within 14 days of the date of this letter then regrettably we must advise our client that it is now in a position to issue proceedings against you if it chooses. You are urged to seek some independent legal advice in order to avoid any further action being taken against you, or incurring additional cost."

I contacted the Police and did enquire about the RLP and whether or not a crime was even reported. No crime ever was nor has any Police officer even set foot near my door to enquire about one.

I decided today after this being the 3rd letter (2nd in the last 3 weeks) to telephone RLP to discuss this further.

In their letters they state a letter before claim in the first letter, however in the second state that I should resolve this claim.

I can't resolve a claim without a letter headed claim I believe (not that I would anyway unless served by the actual company at hand).

Now I did also request that if no claim was eventually made nor no legal action taken, that my data be removed, am I within my rights to do this?

No!! You never ever ring RLP

Totally ignore them

That letter word for word is already here several to times!!

this is yet another template? Well.....now I regret spending 5p on that phone call. Good stuff. Cheers dx!

dont worry, next year the law changes so these people wont be able to send out their silly letters without consequences.

GDPR will cause RLP much grief when they ignore that one.

dont worry, next year the law changes so these people wont be able to send out their silly letters without consequences.

What changes are these and what consequences will they face?

What changes are these

GDPR, at a guess ...... (the law has been passed, but comes into force next May)

and what consequences will they face?

http://www.eugdpr.org/gdpr-faqs.html

Whether GDPR will severely impact the likes of RLP or if they'll find a way to skirt round its provisions remains to be seen (as does its effects post-Brexit ; a whole new can of worms!)

I just wonder if the likes of RLP are curbed in what they do,

instead of threatening letters being sent,

which you can just tear up,

it ends up going the other way;

the shops them self's now take direct action against the shoplifters

So instead of gdpr protecting shoplifters, it actually works in favour of the stores which have to deal with shoplifters, but only time will tell

shops will never prosecute on 99% of these cases

bad publicity far outweighs that

most shoplifters dont have the wherewithall to make it worthwhile.

The amount of staff time tied up on things like this would be a burden on profits in itself.

I would think that you may see more willingness to furnish evidence for a prosecution and then seek compensation and costs on the back of that.

RLP antics dont reach the hardcore shoplifters anyway

I just wonder if the likes of RLP are curbed in what they do,

instead of threatening letters being sent,

which you can just tear up,

it ends up going the other way;

the shops them self's now take direct action against the shoplifters

 

So instead of gdpr protecting shoplifters, it actually works in favour of the stores which have to deal with shoplifters, but only time will tell

GDPR, at a guess ...... (the law has been passed, but comes into force next May)

 

 

 

http://www.eugdpr.org/gdpr-faqs.html

 

Whether GDPR will severely impact the likes of RLP or if they'll find a way to skirt round its provisions remains to be seen (as does its effects post-Brexit ; a whole new can of worms!)

Thanks, I'm aware of GDPR but wanted to know why ericsbrother thought it would be different to the current situation as I don't see a single thing changing.

Theroetically there will be a tightening on who handles data and who they can hand it over to.

My reading of it is that there is no pathway from a firm to the likes of RLP because the data subject hasn't got a relationship with RLP at the outset

the right will be there to restrict the processing of their data to exclude it passing over to these bandits.

I'm sure that they will claim that someone signed a bit of paper allowing these rights so be trampled on but the individual can still tell RLP to bin their data

legally RLP wont be able to say no as they aren't in a relationship with that individual by way of offering a service or commodity to them aren't an official body despite their fantasies they like to promulgate.

I would imagine that the law will only have an effect if enough people apply to have it enforced