Also, give your local citizens advice a call. They will help with what you should include in your letter.

Hi Elizabeth, You should write and say that the value that they are asking for is disproportionate to the offence. If they took it that seriously then they would have involved the police. Asking for such a ludicrous amount is unethical and immoral in my opinion. It all depends really if you did mean to take the item or if, like me it was unintentional. Whatever happens, £100 is way too high a price to pay.

A quick update. The CAB have advised that they will support me and that I should write to the local store, head office and to Drydens which I have done. I will let you know what happens next!

Thank you Button, I will most definitely stick to my guns. I am 100% confident that I have done nothing unlawful. I managed to find a report by the citizens advice bureau (Unreasonable demands?) It makes for very interesting reading. On page 10 of the PDF report it states. However, Asda has stated that it is its policy not to issue claims letters to “offenders under 16 and over 65 or the mentally disturbed”, to “offenders who steal goods to the value of less than £3”, or “where there is any reasonable doubt as to whether the individuals had committed the offence” I am going to contact the author of that report and see if they would be willing to write to Asda on my behalf as they have done for other clients. I will keep you posted and let you know what happens. Thanks again to everyone on this forum, you have given me the confidence to dispute this ridiculous claim.

I have been thinking about writing to them and saying that I am prepared to go to court to prove my innocence, because it was an honest mistake. They would have called the police if they believed that I had stolen anything.

I think they shrunk the attachments so I have reattached them in a zip file. drydens.zip

Thank you, everybody on here has been so helpful. Sorry it took me so long. Scanner issues!! The letter should be attached now.

Sure, will do. Just doing that now

Thank you so much, I really appreciate this advice. This is not my area of expertise at all. The machine that I was trying to use would only accept cash because the card machine was broken but I hadn't noticed this until all of my items had been scanned. So I rescanned all items, paid and left. I am not sure why the toothpaste wasn't on my receipt and hadn't scanned. Normally if something doesn't scan it will ask you to redo it. I haven't had a letter confirming my store ban but I was asked to sign to agree with the ban, which I did because I was in shock, humiliated and just wanted to leave. The guard was very nice to me and called a woman in as a witness. Stupidly, I didn't get a copy of what I had signed or the guards name / company. I will attach the letter shortly which states what the £150 is for.

Thank you very much for your support and advice. I have spent thousands of pounds in this store so this treatment feels unjust. I was just so surprised to receive this letter, especially as the security guard beleived that it was an honest mistake. What I don't want to do is get a CCJ (I have an unblemished credit history) but at the same time don't want to be bullied. All this over a tube of toothpaste!

Hi, I came across this forum whilst searching for drydens lawyers and wondered if anybody would be able to offer me any advice. I went to Asda to do my shopping and used the self checkout as usual, I had problems with the card machine so I had to rescan all of my items through another till. As I was leaving the store I was pulled to one side by a security guard who asked to look through my shopping. There was a tube of toothpaste that I hadn't paid for, i am not sure how this managed to go unscanned so I apologized profusely and offered to pay for the item or give it back. The guard said that even though he believed it was an honest mistake I would be banned from the store for 6 months. I gave him my name and address and the police weren't called. Needless to say I was mortified and humiliated and left the store feeling like a criminal. Today I received a letter from Drydens entitled "NOTICE OF INTENDED CIVIL RECOVERY" demanding that I pay £150 within 7 days or be taken to court. The charge is for Security costs. I really can't afford to pay this amount within 7 days. I have never had a criminal record and I have never been taken to court. Should I just try to pay it and keep quiet? Any advice would be much appreciated. Regards I am really intimidated by this letter and am unsure what to do next