Thanks a lot, you've really soothed my panicking!

God this sounds rather scary. I'll ignore their letters and also post what I receive on here. Just to be clear, and sorry for labouring the point, my credit rating wont be affected by RLP? Can't believe their business is even legal to be honest with you

OK, thank you for that. Yesterday it didn't seem as if the matter would be taken further by the retailer, even according to the Debenhams security guard that came down on me pretty hard. Can I expect the letters to come to an eventual stop? This is really helpful by the way, thank you!

I understand. There are other ways I've found to release tension and keep myself on the ball, today was just a stupid "why not" moment that I wont do again. Neither one of my issues are immediately apparent to other people - far from it - so if I'll be fine in terms of law breaking from now. I just read a few other RLP threads - is it really a case of ignoring them? Has anyone been taken to court by them before?

No I'm not. To be honest I don't think I'm going to for a long time. I've just been putting all my energy into trying to secure this job recently, I think I'll feel better when I finally get there. Thank you for your concern though, I don't mean to throw it back at you. This is just one of those complicated things that I'm unfortunately unlikely to ever get to the bottom of!

Just giving this a quick bump because I keep refreshing it. Sorry!

I didn't know you could request them outside of a job application, thanks renegadeimp. I'll definitely look into doing this.

Hi guys. today I was an idiot and shoplifted £61 worth of cosmetics from Debenhams. First time offender and I am so genuinely remorseful. To keep it short and sweet I've got depression/ an eating disorder and I keep doing idiotic things such as the above. I could not be more sorry for this one though, I'll explain below. Police showed up and gave me an £80 fine (I don't think this counts as a caution though, does it?) and were actually quite lovely and understanding. Debenhams security had a justifiable go at me. I was let go immediately but not before I was told to expect a letter from RLP. After some Googling I'm not entirely sure what to expect from them, but apparently the fines are extortionate and terrifying. I could pay if I saved for a while and I couldn't bare black marks on my credit rating for this idiotic mistake - should I pay up? To add injury to idiotic mistake, on the way home I received a phone call from a domestic violence charity which I've been breaking my neck to volunteer for with good news - I got the job which starts at the end of this year. I'm so so upset because the position requires an enhanced CRB check. I suppose my two questions are A) should I give RLP money and B) have I fluffed my chances of working for charities as a career? Thank you in advance to anyone that helps me out. It's greatly appreciated.