Thank you - when the above comment says they send it back to Tesco - can Tesco then take it up themselves - just worried as they had CCTV of me - although the letter was £0 theft and £0 damage as the others...

I think you have to put this into some perspective...do you really think a company like Tesco would be bothered...thats why they farm it out to parasites and see if you fall for their nonsense.

Its simply not financially viable to esculate.

OK thanks

I think you have to put this into some perspective...do you really think a company like Tesco would be bothered...thats why they farm it out to parasites and see if you fall for their nonsense.

 

Its simply not financially viable to esculate.

Totally agree but for slightly different reasons.

All tesco can claim back is the value of the goods stolen and a small admin fee. They got the goods back so how can they sue for £0?? Also, it would cost them far more in legal costs than they could ever get back from you so it isn't cost effective to do so.

Simply not financially viable......

It feels crazy as I did commit the crime and got caught and it doesn't seem right that there are no consequences for me

- I consider myself very lucky that the police were not called and definitely gave me a serious reality check as to why I even did it....

GP reckons it was a cry for help as I was so blatant about it... anyway it's done, won't be repeated and I appreciate all of your help

Stop worrying !

My friend says to expect a 3rd letter as my previous post and to obviously ignore this as well.

He has received nothing at all after his 3rd letter which was received only 2 weeks after the 1st in early November 17 not even any letters from 'debt collectors'.

Looks like they know he's not one of the 'easy targets' and have given up as it's a waste of their time.

Hope this also goes some way to put your mind at rest.

Thank you yes it has

This is Letter 3 received today.

DWF letter 3.pdf

OOH! Scary letter-NOT.

They state that 'they will consider' and 'payment or response' Your response is go forth and multiply by not responding at all. I notice that earlier in this thread that you said that it was crazy that you committed the act with no consequences. If you wanted to assuage your guilt, make a donation to your choice of charity or donate to CAG.

As for now, ignore!

Hi thank you - it is quite daunting to ignore but I am doing this. I have also donated to the local homeless refuge where we volunteer anyway - we stocked up and dropped lots of tins, packets etc off last month

Should be the last letter now. just ignore.

My friend has still not received anything else since his 3rd letter in November.

Whilst I obviously don't condone shoplifting, what totally annoys me is that this Country does have a strange attitude in that 'legalised' theft, corruption and indirect fraud is rampant in the form of 'hidden' activities by usually large corporate companies such as ripping off the general public by misleading them, tv licencing exorting money from the public etc etc. and this is all seen as acceptable.

However if you inadvertently steal a tin of beans you are labelled as carrying out a most heinous terrible crime worthy of a public thrashing.

This is why the government don't like sites like this and will tell people not to trust information on the internet.

Broken corrupt Britain at its best.

Thanks Sean the Sheep.

I was entirely at fault here - I fully expected them to call the police and for me to have a criminal record etc.

I actually cannot believe that stores themselves are so "soft" on shoplifters.

I understand that it isn't worth time/effort etc to pursue small amounts but for those who know this is what happens it's like giving them a green light to steal and have no consequences (except these letters)....

personally I think I was away with the fairies and as I say I must have subliminally wanted to be caught because I was so blatant...

still have no idea what happened in this head of mine that day to bring on such erratic behaviour as since I have been "normal" again and it seems very surreal....

they are not interested in one off offenders

the serial offenders that p'haps feed a drug habit etc etc they are.

It is my belief that all shoplifters be referred to the police for one simple reason. They have no financial interest.

The police tend to use common sense and will tend to take the shoplifters excuse into account. For first timers who have a valid reason, (away with the fairies is one) the police will take no action and put it down to accidental theft or at the very worst, offer a fixed penalty notice. These are not normally recorded as being a crime.

That is also a reason why the likes of RLP and DWF don't want the police involved.

My advice to any alleged shoplifter. Call the police yourself and state that you are being held against your will (NOT 999 ) People have been dragged into the security office and if the accusation is false, the store will be in for a shed load of trouble.

That makes sense although from an offenders perspective and having no prior knowledge I saw it as a good thing at the time that they didn't phone the police almost as if they were doing me a favour... ironic isn't it how the mind works. Thanks again for everyone's help and advice.

Hi

Silver fox is right, when stopped by Security, if you have stolen something you cannot leave but they cannot make you go into an office. I do not condone theft but if you empty your bag of any stolen goods and tell them that is it then you can walk out.

I know of a particular store where the security staff are being charged with assault for grabbing hold of people trying to drag them back into the store.

I have never shop,iftedbut an alarm went off once as l was leaving a shop, at the same time a young man was walking out who l would imagine was a culprit, l refused to stop and told the guard to stop picking on women and make the effort to stop the more likely suspect, he walked off.

I know that is stereo typing but l think it wasn’t an unreasonable assumption.

I hope you get help from your GP.

Cups

the law regarding what a person can and cannot do in shops regarding apprehending someone is rather confused as court cases have decided it is private land but also a public place so theoretically you can go behind the counter and you arent doing anything wrong.

The private land part would allow the security staff to use NECESSARY force to apprehend you if you were in the process of committing an indictable offence whereas in a public place they have little to defend themselves if they did use force other than for self defence because of the corruption of the meaning of the word reasonable.

So staff grabbing someone in a store to apprehend them or stop them committing an offence?

Perfectly acceptable even if that resulted in your death unless they killed you on purpose.

Do the same outside- almost impossible to argue regarding force beng reasonable or necessary if someone is merely legging it with your goods

Hmmmm,

Won’t say you’re wrong but as a practitioner, you are in a public place, end of, reasonable force, not a leg to stand on, they can search you but you can insist they do it in public, my point is that you do not have to go into an office, walk further into the shop and start shedding clothes to prove you have no more property, their grounds have gone,,,publicly shame them

Hello everyone. I just wanted to update you as you were all kind enough to give me advice and reassurance earlier this year on this thread.

As of now (over 3 months) I have not received anything further since Letter 3 from DWF.

I am hoping that is the end of it.

On a personal note, I have changed jobs and am in a much happier place, cannot believe this was me reading the original post... thanks again all for not judging and helping.

thanks..we don't judge not what we are here for...

we just hate these fleecers and DCA's that sometimes blindly spoof people out of money they have no legal right too and use it to go away on holiday with....

Excellent, really good to hear

I'm so glad that you are in a better place. I hope in some way we have helped and that you use your new knowledge in a positive way.

I wish you the best of luck.

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Thank you