Caught for shoplifting at Asda, saying civil recovery fine

[shikha]

Hi All, my friend and I were shopping at Asda, she had trolley with her stuff and I had my own stuff, I was in the queue but then realized she is in some kind of trouble with security officers, After 40 mins or so she came out and explained me what happened - for some reasons she took trolley out of asda gate without paying and one security officer came out and asked her if she had paid, she honestly said she has not and came back in, they took her to security room and started interrogating her, they obviously did not believe that it was just her mistake and she agreed that she made a very stupid mistake but she is not a criminal. Moreover she just received British Citizenship and is about to apply for British passport.

Security officer did not call any police as she agreed that she made a mistake, and she signed a letter which states that she is now banned from coming to asda for next 6 months or so, officer also mentioned that she will be receiving fine of £150 which she has no issues in paying

 

She is working as a manager in a very reputed company and now extremely worried for following reasons, has been reading about all of this since it happened yesterday with her, Any kind of help will be much appreciated.

 

1. Is this incident going to affect her current employment, she is working there from last 4+ years and has very good reputation

2. Is this incident going to affect her future jobs etc especially if she works for a financial institution

3. Is this going to affect her passport application, she has already received British citizenship

4. Is this information going to be shared with police? can police be involved now?

5. Officer told her that she will receive civil recovery fine from another company, I read some posts related to that where it says that her information will be stored in National database of dishonest people, is that true, if yes how does this affect her career?

 

Pls help with information, does she needs to visit a lawyer?

Regds

Shikha

[perplexity]

There is a lot of controversy about this sort of private enforcement.

 

It seems to me that the mistake is to avoid the police. To say that "she is not a criminal" is to suggest that a conviction is not so likely if the case were tried, so a person so sure of this would be better off with the opportunity to plead her case before a Justice of the Peace, to demonstrate her innocence.

 

It is otherwise an extraordinarily unconvincing assertion.

[raydetinu]

if the police were not involved it will be purely a civil matter and you can either pay the crf or ignore it and hope they dont take it court, which in most cases they dont. but you will get lots of threats. So in theory you could get a CCJ if you dont pay which may appear on any credit records etc.

they do have a data base, but someone would actually have to check if anybody is on it.

[shikha]

Hi raydetinu, Thanks for the reply, she will immediately pay the fine as we just want to close this matter, as you said they have a database but some one has to actually check if anybody is on it, Would employers go and check that database? that is main worry? other then the fact that she is about to apply for passport.

[rebel11]

Hi shi

 

Before she pays it, it might be an idea to visit CAB, see what they advise.

[shikha]

Yes, that is good idea. Does anybody knows how will this affect her current job, future jobs etc?

[perplexity]

Yes, that is good idea. Does anybody knows how will this affect her current job, future jobs etc?

 

 

If you are wondering why some of us are not so keen to answer the question it may be because we would rather not be seen to conspire to deceive.

 

If this is the sort of thing that an employer should wish to know, because of the nature of the work, in so far as the omission "dishonestly fails to disclose to another person information which he is under a legal duty to disclose", the offence could be prosecuted under Section 3 of the Fraud Act, "Fraud by failing to disclose information".

 

An honest person, "not a criminal", would and should inform an employer or prospective employer in any case, regardless of the Security Officer. This would not be counted as a breach of confidence under the Data Protection Act, so if you want to know if they would disclose, the question should be put to Asda.

 

There is no general right to deceive an employer.

[raydetinu]

dont think it would affect anything else unless it became public knowledge, not in the public domain unless somebody is looking for it.

[shikha]

How can it become public knowledge? does CRB checks including querying this data?

[raydetinu]

word of mouth or general tittle tattle! grassing you up say!

[shikha]

There will not be any word of mouth as nobody we knew knows about this, its more of of worry in case current employer or new emploer finds it out

[Dublindel]

They will not in to court and nothing will happen except for a string of demands for payment. Pay if you feel the need but its £150 wasted

[rebel11]

Thread moved to the correct forum.

[sparx]

I thought in order to have committed "theft" you needed to intentionally deprive someone of something. "Intent" here would have been if she had intended not to pay for it at all - although it makes me wonder why she decided to go out of the store with the trolley in the first place.

 

ASDA cannot "Fine" you, nor can private companies. By using this term they are in effect pretending to be in authority. ASDA did not lose any of their goods, and as I read your post no goods were damaged, so what damages did ASDA or their security suffer? £0. Which is all they could take you to court for.

 

Yes, if the police were involved then a criminal conviction could have come of it, but as they were not, then it cannot happen.

 

 

This information is correct as far as I know, although I am not a solicitor and therefore will not be held liable if it is inaccurate.

Edited September 29, 2011 by sparx

[fcumred]

Asda cannot fine anyone, nor can they threaten to do so. Your friend is pefectly entitled to stand there and tell them to shove their so called fine where the sun doesn't shine. Your friend is perfectly within her rights to go back to the store and demand her money back and in fact could take legal action because a security officer does not have the power to force people to pay fines. Its tantamount to pretending to be a police officer.

 

I would suggest that your friend writes to Asda, apologising for the mistake, and making sure she makes it perfectly clear it was a genuine mistake. I would insist they reimburse the £150 which was ILLEGALLY requested if she has already paid it.

[perplexity]

Yes, if the police were involved then a criminal conviction could have come of it, but as they were not, then it cannot happen.

 

 

It is Common Law right, to prosecute an offence.

 

Section 6 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 provides that any person may institute or conduct any criminal proceeding to which the duty of the CPS to take over does not apply.

 

All you have to do is lay the information before a Magistrate in order to issue a summons if the evidence appears to be sufficient to justify the prosecution. The Police need not be involved.