accidental shoplifting.. advice required

[SPC_NI]

Hello from Scotland.

Lots of fear in my apartment tonight sadly.. my girlfriend managed to attempt to walk out of a supermarket with items in a bag she'd forgotten about.

She had a shopping basket, handbag and a shopping bag with her lunchbox etc in it on one arm and put a few items of cosmetics (£20) in the shopping bag by mistake, then forgot to check them out while paying for other items at a self service till.

She was intercepted on her way to the door then escorted to the back room, where a rather unpleasant plain clothes "security consultant" made every attempt to scare her, which, given her circumstances, he managed.

Beside the point though. The police were apparently called, but were unable to attend due to a high number of other cases. She was there for 2.5 hours, before being allowed to leave after providing ID and proof of address. Her bags were searched (she wasn't asked,don't know if this is relevant or not) and she was told she was not permitted to call me until the police arrived.

In the end, as stated, they did not, and she was there when the security manager, who was much more civil, called the police and told them she was being released. More or less for the reason the store staff didn't want to stay late, although this wasn't said to the police, rather offline.

So, my question is what can happen now? Can charges be brought? A formal caution?

She's a tier 2 visa holder, with a clean record living and working in the UK for 3.5 years. We've submitted notice to marry 3 weeks ago after a 1.5 year relationship. We're awaiting the decision of the home office on whether we have approval to get married and are obviously worried about what effect a charge or caution May have on that process, and subsequent transfer of her tier 2 visa to a spousal visa if marriage approval is granted.

Thanks for taking the time to read

Kind regards

[MIKE770]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

marriage approval by the government?? new that one, you mean "Leave to Remain" do you not?

- - - Updated - - -

all you will get now is Threatograms for £150.00 begging her to pay them from RLP - ignore they have had no losses! another jumped up Retail backed company to fleece the public, no police charges = end of! others will also comment.

[MIKE770]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

Foreign nationals — marriages and civil partnerships in the UK - Gov.uk

https://www.gov.uk/marriages-civil-partnerships/foreign-national

[des8]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

Hi and welcome to LB.

Firstly relax.... this is going nowhere.

The security guard should not have carried out a search of her bags without her permission...he could well have planted "evidence"
It is too late for the police to be involved, and frankly for £20 it won't be worth their time anyway.


Secondly do not refer to a slip of the memory as "accidental shoplifting".
It is not shoplifting, and it is not a crime (yet) to have a lapse of memory!
Was she "persuaded" to sign anything (possibly admitting guilt) due to the overbearing atittude of the security consultant?

What might happen is a letter from some so called"civil recovery" firm lands on the doormat.
This will be demanding a certain amount of money (typically about £150) for some spurious costs that te store have incurred.
It will be dressed up in legalese and seem quite threatening.
Just ignore it (and subsequent letters) if they arrive.

And congratulations to you both on your engagement.

[SPC_NI]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

"marriage approval by the government?? new that one, you mean "Leave to Remain" do you not?"

Mike:

Thankyou for replying, it was late when I wrote that and the terminology I was using were kinda colloquialisms.

She's on a Tier 2 visa, working in the UK, and as such is not subject to further immigration controls such as
A marriage visitor visa.

However as she has not got a marriage visitor visa, and is not an EEA/Swiss national, our notice of intention is automatically passed to the Home Office Marriage Referral Team for consideration. This is just a review to determine whether this is a genuine or sham marriage. Genuine, obviously.

They give or deny approval to the registrars office for the ceremony to continue.

After that she can have her tier 2 visa converted (? If this is the correct word) to a "Family of a settled person" visa, or something similar, can't remember exact terminology I have the gov.uk page bookmarked. But there is a background check/interview process that goes with this.

I believe indefinite leave to remain is only granted after 5 years in the UK, a period which is reset when we get married i.e. the 5 years starts from that point despite the previous 3.5 years she's been here.

Finally, Thankyou for the information on the situation, but if I may ask, what is RLP?

Des:

Thankyou for your reply, very reassuring and in answer to your question, no she was not asked to sign anything, and the whole time she was there she denied any accusation that she had intentionally stolen something.

This plain clothes security contractor was just, for want of a better word, an assbag to her... she continually stated it was a mistake and offered to pay, to which he told her "it was a deliberate mistake, we don't want money, we want justice", and at one point after she said she had a clean record and nothing like this had ever happened before, he stated that she "just hadn't been caught before". He was out to intentionally scare her.

Thankyou for your congratulations, we're very excited, having just moved into a new apt together.

[charitynjw]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

what is RLP?

http://www.lossprevention.co.uk/

[MIKE770]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

to determine whether this is a genuine or sham marriage. Genuine, obviously. = "primary Purpose Rules", normally used to prior to applicants coming into the UK by Embassies,! faught Thatcher on that one and won!

[SPC_NI]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

Charitynjw:

Thanks for that, we'll keep an eye out for the letter.

Mike:

At the minute we're less concerned about how the home office assessment is conducted than the effect a caution or charge may have on visa conversion.

But mainly we were worried if it would come to charges or caution at all, we just had no idea what might happen last night, and my gf was rather stressed because of the incident.

Perhaps I should have mentioned earlier that they have her on camera putting the items in the bag, but I assumed that would be taken as given, which perhaps I shouldn't have. But the camera won't show anything other than I described.

Thanks for your further replies,we appreciate it.

[des8]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

Their examination of her bags would render any crimial case virtually impossible.
I hope she was smiling for the cameras!

It may not be RLP who wirte to her.
Different companies use different outfits, so be prepared

[SPC_NI]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

Des, Thankyou.

The police have just been around to our place an issued a police warning (Scotland). The front of the slip says this warning is not a finding of guilt or conviction, and we were told that this is only retained in police records and will not show up in any background checks for jobs etc.

Does this sound about right?

[des8]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

Recorded police warning scheme: https://www.askthe.scottish.police.uk/content/Q927.htm

Given a decent solicitor I doubt any prosecution would stand up, but on the other hand I doubt it is worth the stress of appealing.

[SPC_NI]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

Thanks Des, I read that earlier, but was unclear as to what the Criminal History System is and how it would apply to background checks for visas or job applications etc, which the article does not go into.

[des8]

Re: accidental shoplifting.. advice required

these might help
http://www.scotland.police.uk/assets...stem-procedure
https://www.mygov.scot/disclosure-ty...is-disclosure/