Accused of shoplifting and given letter on ban and possible Civil recovery

[Helloitsme12]

Hi

Yesterday I got caught ‘shoplifting’ from Sainsbury’s. I say it in quotes because it was a genuine mistake, I put less than a fivers worth of items under my pram as I use that as a basket as I can’t carry or use a trolley when I have my pram and then I went to Argos to browse, made a phone call and got side tracked and left and forgot about the items under my pram.

I had a rough looking guy in a tracksuit approach me asking to talk to me and because of how he approached me I told him to eff off it of instinct being a woman with a baby only to see him followed my by securing he said he is undercover. I said what are you on about and he said the items under the pram, it dawned on me so I apologised and offered to pay. He said no so I returned the items and advised the above and he said I’m a liar, I said no I’m not it was an honest mistake and he took my name, address and DOB and gave me a letter stating I’m banned from the store and I may face civil recovery loss. He said the police won’t be notified but I can’t return so i said fair enough and left.

I phoned DWF anonymously and they advised it’s the fact the security had to intervene is why they charge you and nothing to do with the goods. They said they may or may not send correspondence it depends if the store report it and they have a 60 day time frame in which to do so and I advised what I’ve read on the internet about not paying and she said it’s your choice but it will go to debt collections potentially and maybe court but this is down to Sainsbury’s if they wish to take you to court as they have tk report back to Sainsbury’s.

Has anyone successfully ignored these notices and years later it’s never been heard of or affected them?

[echat11]

Hi Hello

Welcome to LB

Try not to worry.

It's kind of 'over the top', sounds like an 'overzealous' undercover / security. If they had called the police,
I'm not sure the police would have been impressed (£5). What these companies do is send out a speculative invoice (example £140), all the alleged costs are covered in their business model, there is no real breakdown of costs. So the advice is to ignore until they send anything meaningful, which they haven't done, to the best of my knowledge.

In your case I'd actually complain to Sainsbury, genuine mistake, if that is the closest shopping to you, you don't want to be trekking long distances with a pram.

[PallasAthena]

Has anyone ever successfully ignored these letters?

As far as I am aware everyone who comes here and follows our advice to ignore the letters has done so 'successfully". By which I mean that DWF, after sending 4 or 5 threatening sounding letters over several months (all ignored) eventually stop sending them and go away.

We always advise to come back here for more help if they ever receive a formal 'Letter of Claim under the Pre-Action Protocols' or anything actually issued by a court. So far no-one has ever come back to say that has happened.

As DWF admitted to you they themselves are powerless and can't take anyone to court. Only Sainsbury's could do that and that won't happen for £5

[Helloitsme12]

Thanks for everyone’s reply. To be honest I couldn’t care less if they banned me. I won’t be returning to that store again especially because of how I was treated. I even asked one of the store workers where the item was I needed and if I was pinching I wouldn’t have asked to draw attention to myself!

there are other supermarkets around so I’m not bothered about it. Just annoying. I won’t go back to that store in particular I’ll just wait a whole
and use other Sainsbury’s and pay in cash in future so I can’t be traced. Do they use AI or facial recognition on those cameras they have?

if I do wrote to Sainsbury’s to complain would they dismiss the civil recovery. And if I get a letter I will keep you updated.

i gave the under cover guy my details but he misspelt them and I didn’t bother to correct him do you think this will matter?