Hi I need some help and advice on council tax. I am a tenant and I moved into a house in jan. 2010, 1 month later i received the council tax letter to pay £95/month approx. only me and my wife lives in the house. i have not paid any council tax so far as my intentions were to apply for benefits once our first baby is born (which is born now and 5 weeks old.) so on 29 march i applied for council tax and housing benefits, then i received a letter from them asking for a few documents which i supplied to them on 26 april, on 27th morning i received summons from court for me and my wife separately, about outstanding council tax. and in the summons they have asked for £300 from me and my wife separately so in total they are asking for £600 from both of us. which i think is wrong, it should be around £300 for jan. to march. i rand council staright away i saw the summons and i was told that decision has been taken for my claim for benefits and i am eligible and they will send me the details in a few days. but they said that i will have to pay the tax for the period i did not apply for benefits but also told me that i can apply for backdated benefits and i will be eligible if i can prove that there are good reasons for me to not apply for benefits from january. can someone please advice m ethat how can i prove that i am eligible for backdated benefits showing good reasons for not applying.

Can anybody suggest something ....like..... it has been two working days and i have not heard anything from police or court or Crime prosecution services..so shall i wait until they contact me? how long after they are likely to contact me??? do i need to get a solicitor? Do i need to wait and see what happens next.....? or any body can suggest i take art in some classes for anti theft programme.?? Can somebody suggest any such organisation please??

I did not respond to ur comment because at the moment i am too concerned in getting help and sorting out other things but let me tell you i havn't asked for help on only this site but on few others site as well, u can go to following link and see 4 urself please. shoplifting in 7 different stores, took about £600 worth stuff. - WORLD Law Direct Forums this is one of trustworthy site where i was told that i can get help other than The Consumer Forums - Welcome to the The Consumer Forums. hope u understand, even if u dont still thankful to u for reading my problem.

I just rang them they said wait until police comes to your house (probably to search your house) , and then give them a ring again!!! but i am jus too worried that what if they arrest me and take me away from my wife, she wil be left all alone in this condition... M really worried and just want this to be overwith. THANKS A LOT for all your help, really really appreciate it. ------------- Also thanks to those people as well who say that .... should cut ur hands off. people like me should not be in this society. and i am a looser.... etc. etc. These people are now making me realize how wrong i was and how shameful it is to steal. Thanks again.....

sorry, please explain what do i need to do with this...??

Hi i would like to ask that what is the punishment or what will happen to me, i was caught shoplifting from superdrugs. i went to 6 different stores (M&S, Primark, New look .....) i stole clothes, perfume and some other items from above stores. at last i went to superdrugs i stole 1 lipstick and 1 set of nails from there and when i left the shop i was caught by security staff, he took me to a room at back and asked me to empty my pockets, i did and he asked if i had anything else, i said ," nothing from your store, so he asked me to empty all my bags, i gave my bags to him and he emptied them on the floor he looked at them and called police, police arrived in 2 hours and took my details down and told me to go home and told me that i will receive a letter from court soon. i offered store manager and police politely and repeatedly to pay for everything and any fine on the spot so that i do not go to the court but they said it is not possible. it started with that in the morning i went in a pound store i tested a perfume, i wanted to show it to my partner who was just outside the shop, i took it out and showed it to her, she said it is good and its only a pound, so buy it, i was going to go in to buy that but then i thought nobody has seen me or stopped me and i am out of the shop so why pay for it and i left without paying for it, now because we went out for shopping on that day, so we carried on and went in to marks and spencer, we picked a lot of items in the basket but i did not tell my partner that i was removing tags as we were browsing in M&S. when we finished and it was time to go to the tills to pay then i asked her to go out and buy a burger for me because there was a big cue on tills so she went out then after gaining some courage i slowly walked out with basket full of clothes and unfortunately nobody stopped me. when i got out i quickly went to the pound shop which was right next and asked them a few empty big shopping bags and put all clothes in it. and took a few extra bags as well. and i went to my partner, unfortunately she did not even noticed it. then after eating we went to new look, and do not need to say that i did the same thing again and again in each shop and i stole a lot of perfume testers and make up testers. altogether it worth around £600 and i was feeling really greedy and as soon as i thought that it is last item and now i will go home, straight away superdrug security staff caught me as i was walking out of the store without paying for some make-up items which were in my pocket and tags were removed. don't need to say that my partner was also with me so she also had to face all that embarrassment and she was searched and held for theft, i told the staff and manager of the store that she is not involved but they did not listen to me and held her as well. police was called and they took all my details, i told police that i am responsible for everything but my partner is innocent then they did not put any case on her and they only filed the case against me, that was a relief after all that. The reason i started stealing on that day that i got greedy. To be honest there is no explanation for that but i could not work for last 16 months, me and my partner had to go and live abroad because of some family problems, i had to spend alot of my savings while i was abroad and there was no earnings except 4 months when i came back to uk and worked for 4 months. My wife had TB and because of that she also lost her job while doctors in UK said she is fit and can work but while we were abroad we found out that she had TB and had to go under treatment for 9 months and it was very expensive treatment while in abroad, and now as she is pregnant, i am trying to work hard and save for all the oncoming expenses before and after the delivery and all that. so under all this pressure i opted out to steal instead of paying for all those maternity clothes and other winter clothes which i could not afford that easily. in all this my wife now knew what i was doing but she repeatedly asked me to not do this and warned me but I got carried away in greediness and got in trouble. But now i am feeling sooo ashamed that i cant go to my work, have been in bed for last two days. it was Friday when i got caught so i am still waiting for court summons or any other correspondence regarding this. i was arrested once 3 years ago for suspicion of theft (internet transfer from somebody's account to mine). but i proved my innocence and that case was disposed without going to the court. I do not know what will happen to me and what punishment am i going to get. It is first time i have ever involved in such a crime except the above. would they report it to my workplace? I know i have done really wrong and dying of being ashamed of it. But please advice me.... what should i do? how should i appear in the court? can i get a lawyer? what are the chances of loosing my job? I am willing to pay all the costs to all the stores and a fine (whatever amount court will ask) but really scared at the moment as me and y wife do not have anybody in this country apart from each other. and she is in 7th month of pregnancy. I am dying of shame and tension and worry please please advice and help.