Penalty Notice for Disorder Refunded

[PND]

Back in late April of this year, a friend and I (both over 18) were issued with a Penalty Notice for Disorder for £90 for low-level shoplifting. We both called (separately) the telephone number to pay a few days later and were both told the amount to pay was £60 - I queried this but was assured it was the amount they had down under my name and ref. no. of Notice (apparently they just dealt with payment and weren't privy to any of the offence details). Was concerned this wasn't the same amount. Called again and, again, they assured me it was down as £60 (the woman I spoke to said this had happened to a relative of theirs and it was a discount for paying early....didn't sound right, but... OK...). So I paid.

Then in the middle of November (so just over 6 months after the offence) the amount has been refunded into my account. I expected a letter to explain why and would deal with it accordingly. However, I've just noticed the policeman wrote my postcode incorrectly on the Notice slip he gave me - called my friend to check hers, and he's done the same with her postcode (2nd letter wrong)! So if they had sent us anything, we wouldn't have received it (they did have my mother's address too, who lives nearby. I won't bore you with why - nothing dodgy; was discussed with police at the time This address was on the dispersal notice and appears to have been taken down correctly. But have received no correspondence there either).

Am worried! Could this matter have been sent to the Magistrate's Court as a fine now (I've been googling this like crazy) under these circumstances? And which Magistrate's Court as they didn't take my address down correctly on the Notice?

My friend is under the impression that as it's all their errors and we promptly paid the fine as it was registered (we couldn't pay more than the sum they had in the system- and assumed it must be correct anyway) we should just ignore it. However, I doubt it will be seen like that and just go away! The policeman who filled out the Notice appeared to be a newbie - possibly why the errors.

Thank you for any insight

[des8]

Re: Penalty Notice for Disorder Refunded

Hi and welcome

The most likely explanation is that tge authorities have made mistakes and are now cancelling it all.
Firstly the offence of retail theft (ie shoplifting) is an upper tier offence for which the penalty is £90.
When you paid, the £60 is the amount for a lower tier offence, so it woud seem the offence had been wrongly classified.
When the error was eventually discovered, the books would not balance, so they refunded your £60.
As you paid immediately, the chances are they would not look for the £90, andcertainly won't take it to magistrates court.
You may get a letter eventuallyexplaining what hashappened.

A similar thing happened to me once over a FPN for speeding.
I paid the penalty immediately, but for some reason the police were unable to endorse my licence with the points.
Because of a system failure it would have been necessary to prosecute to endorse the licence, so instead they returned my payment and I kept a clean licence.

I don't know which retailer was involved, but if one of the larger chains you can expect a request for payment from a company like RLP.
If that happens, please don't rush to pay them; return here for support and just completely ignore them

Ignore that last para. Just realised you're 8 months down the line, so if you haven't heard from RLP yet, you probably never will!:tinysmile_grin_t: