I'm sure everyone realises that for legal reasons and privacy reasons I'm limited to what I can say now and I don't want to argue with people who have helped me, and of course many others. I'm sure we're all on the same side really. I spend a lot in Next, Primark, H&M but they identify items clearly and if you take the wrong thing back (extremely unlikely) they will say "Sorry, this isn't the right item/receipt" and the customer says "Isn't it?. Sorry, I'll take it back and try to find the right one". TKM have a different process whereby they accept anything back that looks vaguely right and then take you to court if it isn't. Whether or not you make a financial gain doesn't matter see above. I don't think I said that labels were attached. I have not worked in retail or security and was unaware of refund fraud until the police told me what it is. My case is closed but it is only polite for me to come back to this thread and answer questions, however to re-iterate my first sentence in a more explicit way: I cannot say anything on this thread that contradicts anything presented in court and there are factors which I was unable to share with the forum but are known by family, friends and accqaintences, my employer etc... the people that matter most. Apologies to anyone who feels dissatisfied or affronted. You've helped me, possibly more than you know. Please don't waste more time on me when you can be helping and supporting other people. I will, of course, make a donation.

All good comments and I'm grateful to you all. It is really useful to be able to see things through others' eyes. Yep, I know it looks bad, thats' why, when I found CAG, I asked for CAG help. Some assumptions are starting to get accepted as truths. I did not buy 200 items in a single transaction. We don't know the price of the 'original', it was probably the same or to within a couple of quid. I did not spot the SKU number. I'm no retail expert . If you have 2 pairs of £7 shoes and don't know about the SKU number you might easily present the wrong receipt. I didn't know that returning shoes for £7 that cost me £7 is a crime. (post 6). In the eyes of the law that is a gain of £7 but in the eyes of my bank account it isn't.

2Grumpy - you have hit the nail on the head. All comparable retailers have clear itemisation.TKM choose not to do that , and to spend hours scouring CCTV looking for wrong items etc. Doesn't make commercial sense to me and doesn't endear them to their customers

Thanks all, great answers. The theory about CCTV turns out to be correct. They watch the refunds and then the purchases however, apparently don't take in to account that if you bought 2 items for the same price, you have made no financial gain. This case has now been to court and the magistrates were very fair, in my opinion. They were happy to discuss all circumstances before making any judgement. Result; Guilty plea and a fine. Sorry to all those who advised not guilty, it would have been touch and go at County court as many have said. However, now I have another worry (well many but lets stick to a relevant one) , These 'offences' took place a few weeks ago and TKM said that they stopped gathering evidence after they found a few dodgy refunds. Question: Can they potentially look at all my transactions in more recent weeks and if they find a dodgy refund, can they charge me with that? Do I need to live in fear of a knock on my door and further charges? Their Security guy said they stopped checking me when they thought they had enough and he has no reason to say that it if not true. Better for him to suggest they have more evidence and I should cough to all of it at once.

Another question, if I may. If I decide to suck it up and plead guilty. Will I be fined for every offence or once for all offences. I mean a few hundred quid will be painful enough but it is multiplied by 4 or 8..... disaster. Any ideas?

Phew! So much good advice. Thanks. Batty said :Now here a very crucial question, on these 8 items you returned which had a fraudulent refund, how many items did you return ? e.g. did you return 16 items and 8 had the incorrect refund or was 8 out 8 ? Furthermore on your visits you sought refunds, were they consequetive visits for the refunds or had you claimed refunds inbetween which wern't alledegdly fraudulent ? From what I can tell from my card statements were one or two 'wrong' items out of 10 or 12. In January , I went to TKM about a 15 times and the charges refer to 4 of them. There are 18 refunds on my credit card. Also, the Scenario of staff rushing out to collect data after I left the store seems plausible from what I can remember of police questioning. And as has been said the fact that they didn't go to the police until 6 weeks after the alleged offences might mean they don't have concrete proof. 200 (a guessed figure) items were for my children - clothes for next summer, autumn and next winter. Handbags, perfumes etc for cheap gifts. Clothes for my family abroad and for their friends mabye a dozen people..... This also explains why I couldn't try them on - they were not for me. At home I would contact my relatives and say "I have green and red dresses, would you like them ? "They may say "Yes", "No" or "just the green one".. etc etc . Knowing the TKM have massive discounts occasionally, I was waiting for this and making the most of it. I thought I was being a smart consumer. Not so clever now, right? I'm overwhelmed by your kindness in spending your time for me. Much to contemplate....

Thanks to all who have read/replied. I feel better already. A week ago I would definitely agree that an innocent person should not plead guilty but now things are different. This situation has been very upsetting for me and my family. We can't sleep, my work has gone to H in a handcart, my children are scared to go to school..... If I plead NG, It'll be up to a Crown Ct jury (more delays, stress...) and could hinge on whether or not they believe me...and I wasn't able to convince the police. If I lose the case it'll be financial disaster for me, and I have to consider my family. Bad enough having a parent convicted of fraud, worse still to have a convicted parent and be broke. The whole situation just sucks.

Sorry if my post is waffly, I tried to be concise but there is a lot of detail and I wasn't clear enought. Also sorry if you think I am hiding something. I tried to give full details. Yes I was arrested and charged and told police i wasn't guilty, hence court. No previous or similar accusations. I have summons for Monday. Charged as follows. You made dishonest representation inclaiming a refund for incorrect items namely (item name) intending to make a gain of £(amount) for yourself. Note amount in the charges is the amount of the refund, however, any gain would surely be the refund less what I paid for it, which would still be a crime in the eyes of the law but a much smaller figure. To respond the the proof question. I think CPS are relying on the quantity rather than quality of evidence. Perhaps they think that I bought a large quantity to try to obscure my crime. Prices fall off or are sometimes not attached at all. Everyone who goes to TKM a lot knows this as fact. The red sale stickers get picked at to see the original price. (All disputed items were in sales) How can TKM show that I bought Handbag A for £20 and Handbag B for £10 and then returned B with a £20 price tag? All reciept shows is two handbags of different prices. Also, I think they need to show intent but I say that *if* the refund was higher than the price, it was an honest error and I tried to match items for return to the price labels or reciept amounts. I'm no thief and have no reason to try to diddle anyone out of a few quid.

(Didn't know where to post this, it spans retail and legal, and CAG tutorial suggested Welcome page) I was accused by TKMaxx of retail fraud: buying two similar items and returning the lower price item for the price of the higher priced item, Although I did not deliberately do this, they say they have evidence that I did this on 8 items on 2 visits to the shop. My view is that they cannot prove it; but I have to go to court and the cost of a solicitor to represent me is about £400 which I can hardly afford and will likely be more than any fine. If I plead not guilty I can go to Crown Court and may have to pay a contribution to costs which I am informed could be around £4000. Which I definitely can't afford and I can't afford to take the risk of that. I don't qualify for legal aid. So basically I am stuck with pleading guilty to fraud, living with a criminal record, and trying to find ways of mitigating my punishment. Not what I expected of British justice and this could happen to almost anyone, easily. a few more facts. The alleged offences were 2 months ago (and 2 months before I was charged) and I can't remember some of the items nevermind how much I paid , or how much I received in refund. I think that if TKM had a strong case they would have reported it earlier and that they waited to ambush me in the shop to try to get me to admit it immediately. TKMaxx are alleging about £100 in fraud but actually, that doesn't take into account the money I paid for the lower-priced item. My actual 'gain', if there was one, will be less than £5 per item. Hardly worth committing a crime. The police have all receipts so I can't use them to check any facts or refresh my memory. I'm not sure if I should mention in court that the figures quoted are wrong by about an order of magnitude. I bought probably 200 items and returned over 100, and it could be that this volume led TKM to think I must be up to something. In fact, I had been waiting for sale time to buy stuff for me, friends and family. So making 8 ' mistakes' isn't a high proportion TXMaxx receipts (unlike comparable retailers eg Next) do not itemise individual items. They only say "Boys shoes", "Handbag" etc. and people pick the red sale stickers off the tickets so they can see the original price so the prices often fall off.. TKM say they have CCTV but I doubt that it shows how much I paid for the disputed items and how much I received in refund - ie no proof. Neither can they proove that I deliberately commited fraud - only that they suspect it on 8 occasions and therefore there is no smoke without fire. I think the CCTV is purely used an a bullying tactic because I don't dispute that I went to the shop and returned stuff, Checking on the Net, TKMaxx have been targets for refund fraud or ticket swapping since at least 2006 because of their lax processes. They have not changed these processes and closed this loophole so they are at least partly responsible for their own misfortune if people take advantage of it. OK so when I have a hundred items to return (unwanted by friends) and some don't have price tags attached, it is likely that I connected the wrong ones in some case. There may be occasions when I got a lower refund than I paid, I don't know. Sometimes I had to guess which prive went with the purchases and this is how the 'fraud' happens. I always give my correct name and address to the shop, which I wouldn't do if I knew I was commiting fraud. Also, TKMaxx have some items in bags which they say are the items I returned. I doubt they could prove that because I don't remember them being pu aside when I returned them. Someone must have dashed out of the security office and collected them, or gone through the receipts and found similar items. I doubt there is an unbroken evidence chain. Oh and I have the usual letter from RLP (see many other threads) which I will take CAG advice and ignore. Any advice welcomed and let this be a warning that it could happned to anyone who shops at TKMaxx.