Hi everyone, I'm new here, but never did I think I would be in the situation where I would need help.
I was shopping in Sainsburys on the 16th Nov and myself and my partner brought about £60 worth of items with the hand hold self scanner, anyway, after walking through the exit, two of the guards grabbed us and said ''I know what you did''. Took me to the back room, and accused us of stealing a tin of roses as my partner put it in the trolley without my knowledge simple mistake,, in the shock of it all i must of dropped the receipt outside the store,, as the guards wanted it and i could not find,, they said well it was in your hand i said well its not now is it we were escorted through the store one in front and one guard behind,, I was shocked, in hindsight, I know I was on autopilot mode as my partner had paid for all the items and had pushed the trolley out of the store
I explained that to the guard, but he wasn't having it i said theres been some mistake and offered to pay for the item, and looking directly over me in an intimidating manner whilst we were seated and he said ''you purposely placed items in the trolley without scanning them and we have already called the police,,, he then started the previous wk shopping where myself and my partner had been "randomly tested" at the scan and go tills but through a fault of the scanner everything had to be redone through a normal check point and it came to £227 as we had brought alot more than normal as we were getting ready for xmas & it was my mothers birthday but he said there was only £97 on the scanner before it went through which i replied thats incorrect the guard then said well this is you nector card isnt it? I said well i used mine to activate the scanner but after the confusion at the till point we used my partners and she paid,, but on his paper work only my details were present,, he said i was lying and that i could explain it to the police he and the manager then said all your visit to sainsburys comes to 60-80 per wk thats pretty consistent and by this point i had enough of there manners, i replied with well its called sticking to a budget which he then said well he cant manage that consistence..i said thats not my fault
The police turned up whilst we waited in there holding room with the door open and staff continued to walk past very embarrassing for the both of us,,,, after the store discussed the matter with the police came into say they would service me a a penalty notice of £100 and i said to both of us? the officer said no its been treated as u were working together and i said well put it in my name then which the officer did,,,, Anyway, they gave us a form, banning us and let us go. To be honest, I was glad to get out and didn't care if I was banned for life.
we were also refunded the amount we had paid but even then i still offered to pay bcus i really didnt wanna have to go shopping again that day , (which i did to tesco and spent £80) then when they refunded the money they gave us £4 to much as we had used a coupon so this proves there tils can not be accurate
but on the 21st (the letter was dated the 19th 3 days after the incident) we both get a letter from DWF stating:
Dear Sirs (seriously? as my partner is a women)
Our Client: Sainsburys Supermarkets
Balance Due: £150
This sum is broken down as follows:
Value of goods stolen £0.00
Value of goods damaged £0.00
Value of cash stolen £0.00
Security costs £150.00
my first question is why have me and my partner got a letter each when the guards and police dealt with it as a joint offence
and secondly is this scare tactics? will there be more letters with threats of civil actions?
Please Advise guys! Many Thanks
