Well they asked us about it but knew the details for they saw us on camera. Let me clarify that I am going to be a student at one of the best universities in the world, I am not an idiot or a ''scroat''. Let me also clarify that the law has deemed the punishment for my offence as an £80 fine. The civil recovery is not a fine nor a punishment but a recovery of costs to the company. Don't bring in the right-ring idiocy of no sympathy for criminals, it's just boring and medieval. Society has (albeit clumsily) decided that the 80 quid fine is justice. They did make us sign some documents accepting guilt etc. I don't know the law well, I don't know what my rights are and I don't know what I can get away with not paying. And no they didn't ask us to pay for the damaged items in store. I have rang the CAB and the woman was delightfully helpful, taking details of what had happenned and saying they would contact me back in the future. As it turns out, they send me a letter with no personal use of my name or anything etc, simply just a document containing legal jargon I don't fully understand.

Ok but do you have any other information over than a smart one-liner?

I got caught shoplifting with my girlfriend in a wilkinson's store, who have taken action and are demanding civil recovery, and I'm just looking for advice. I accept guilt etc. It's our first offence, we are both 18 and we have no records. Anyway, so between us we stole around 15 pounds of stuff, damaged one item that we put back because we could not steal. My girlfriend went to the checkout to buy another item, and I got caught as I was leaving the store with the stolen goods in my bag. The police came, issued an £80 fine each, which we have subsequently both responded to and paid. He said we got off lucky. The guy working at wilkinsons, a bit of an idiot, said that we are likely to recieve civil recovery in the region of £500 each. The civil recovery letters came and they are both identical. £12.94 Total value of goods (£25.93) - recovered goods (£12.94) £82.50 Staff/magement time £24.75 Administration costs £30.25 Security and Surveillance £150.49 total They said if we pay within 21 days they will accept on an entirely ''without prejudice'' basis our client would be prepared to accept £122.99 each. Now, I have two main points. Firstly, and I think this is the more solid fraction of our defence, it seems we have been double charged, as a couple. Obviously, I have no idea of their staff/administration/security costs and though most likely exagerated, I can't argue that these costs have NOT been halved. However, the thing that pointed this out to me was the fact that they have failed to half the cost in goods and we KNOW that we stole £25.93, of which £12.94 was recoverable. Secondly, I'm just generally skeptical of the extent of the costs. As I understand it, this is not a punishment, we have HAD our punishment (ie. the 80 pound fine) and this is simply a cost recovery. There were 3 staff members involved in dealing with the 2 of us for approximately 45 minutes. I don't imagine they get paid in the region of 50-80 quid an hour. Tommorow, I'm visiting the local civil advice bureau for some help, but I was just wondering if anyone on the website could give me the lowdown on what actually happens. I noticed in another thread on the topic there were some useful replies. My particular fear is that the CAB may not be able to recommend what is actually my best course of action. Finally, the direct question I would like to ask. I have a read here and there that they don't actually take anyone to court ever, or that they do but it's only multi-thousand pound theives. I want to know, what will happen if we just completely ignore the letters? Thanks a lot for reading, ***