Caught Shoplifting

[BravoKilo]

Hi, I was caught shoplifting last week in a supermarket. When I was caught the security person and store manager took me to a room at the back of the store where I was told that I am now banned from all their stores for life. I have a decent income, so I have no reason or excuse to do this. I feel ashamed and full of remorse. I would like highlight that they didn't call the police, nor there was any violence involved at all. I have also had my loyalty card taken off of me and was told that I would receive a letter stating that I might be contacted by a solicitors to claim back costs incurred by me (I am aware that I have to ignore this letter). They took my full name, address and date of birth. They didn't take a picture of me neither of my driving licence. However, I have been doing these on a few occasions and, in fact, the security guard showed me a Report of with CCTV photographs of myself at the check out with my associated receipt, corresponding to those previous occasions. The images were quite low resolution and just showing me from the back. There weren't any pictures of me nor my hands putting the items on my bag at the checkout (which I never did at the checkout anyway). This was in a brand new big Tesco store, so surely they can track myself and all my movements with they CCTV system. I reckon they could find around £180-£250 of value in the stolen items. My questions are: 1) Based on reviewed full CCTV and given that they have firm suspicions that I did this on previous occasions, would they take me to Court? They might well do this on the basis of public interest, to prevent other shoplifters or to find flaws in their CCTV. The fact that they have firm suspicions that I did this in other occasions doesn't help at all. I have read that these cases very rarely end up in court. However, they could get around £250 vale stolen items and, most crucially, they seem to have potential records that I have been doing on numerous occasions. 2) If they do win the Court case, I believe the criminal record will appear on my future DBS, which I really need for my job, teacher. This might prevent me from getting another job? I can imagine that no employer would want to hire a criminal, when they have plenty of candidates 3) Inside the store I have always been wearing a full face mask at all times, in that case, it might be extra difficult to track me on CCTV recordings? Would face mask void CCTV recordings? 4) If they take me to Court how likely are the Court to move forward with my case and proceed with it? I am aware that in some cases they just drop the case based on weak evidence or other circumstances. Many Thanks!

[des8]

Relax, they won't be taking this further.
Trawling through hours of CCTV in real time is a thankless task, and if the pictures they already have were sufficient they would have used them.
They were enough to raise suspicion, but unlikely to stand up in a magistrates court.
It is not cost effective to review CCTV for the possibility of recovering a couple of hundred pounds in a civil court.

Stay out of Tesco and ignore the begging letters from DWF (I think that's the firm Tesco use)
You can read their letters here: The Scary Letters.... RLP and DWF - LegalBeagles Forum

[islandgirl]

As above. But yes, if you do it again and they do go to court you would have a criminal record and find it well nigh impossible to get work as a teacher. I say this as someone who sentences shoplifters and has often been part of a panel hiring teachers...