Tesco Shoplifting DWF

[EmmaJ]

Hi, I need some advice. Last weekend I was caught shoplifting in Tesco for £225 worth of groceries. After I walked out the store a security guard came and got me, escorted me back to the detention room, took the trolley to be put through a checkout and made me wait. They asked for my name, I gave it to them, then they wanted verification but the only thing I had was my debit card so they checked that. I didn't have anything with my address on so they wrote down what I told them. They came back to advise the value of the trolley was £225 (which I'm sceptical of) and then gleefully told me because of the value they would have to contact the police. About 45 minutes later the police arrived and arrested me for consumer theft, they read me my miranda rights then took a brief statement from the security guard and the police officers told me they wanted to get me out of the store and we would have a conversation in the police car about what would happen next. The police told me they'd been unable to verify my address so they needed to take me to my house and for my husband to bring out my ID i.e. passport. We slowly drove to my house and they asked me questions about the circumstances of the offence, we retrieved my passport and then drove to a nearby street, parked somewhere out of the way and had a chat. They explained what would normally happen in this situation, that if the theft value was under a certain amount I would be given an on the spot fine of £90 however, they were concerned that this fine would exasperate the situation and actually, as the theft was purported to be for a higher amount, they couldn't issue that fine. The next step is to formally book me in at the station and then I would attend court for a greater fine to be imposed. The police officers were amazing, they made a call to a superior and got approval for a PD form to be completed, which is police discretion to caution me and let me go. They told me what would likely happen next with the Tesco civil recoveries and that I would receive a letter with a 'fine'. They told me that they couldn't claim for the value of the items as they were recovered immediately and there was no loss suffered. They gave me their details and told me that in the event that Tesco tried to recover the value of the goods I could contact them and they would issue a statement on my behalf, which is incredibly kind of them. Exactly 7 days after the incident I received a letter from DWF demanding payment of £125 within 14 days. I've read some threads on here where people have been caught attempting to shoplift much lesser value items and the advice has been to ignore the correspondence and because of no police involvement it can't be taken to court however, I'm not sure what the advice would be in my situation given the police were called but I wasn't charged, just cautioned. Do I ignore the letters? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Amethyst]

I do find it slightly concerning that the Police are backing these Civil Recovery claims. Maybe they were informing you so you were aware and ensuring the store didn't go over the top in the amount invoiced, maybe they have had previous experience of the claims exacerbating situations.

I'd have a job fitting £225 worth of stuff in a Tesco trolley, so unless you had clothes.dvds etc ( that would normally be security tagged in any case ) I can't see that being correct. It hardly matters though tbh.

The store recovered the Goods, and the Police have allowed you to be let off with a caution on this occasion rather than issuing a fixed penalty notice. There is no loss to the store. The security guard would have to be paid whether you had shop lifted or not, the CCTV cameras would be running and paid for regardless, and so on.

I think you are safe to ignore the DWF claims - the only thing you shouldn't ignore is an actual court claim - or anything which shows serious intention to bring a court claim against you.

[des8]

Hi and welcome

I'm not sure that the police were backing civil recovery, as it seems they would support you if DWF were to request payment for the value of the goods.
However as Amethyst and the other thread you have looked at, just ignore DWF,

Please note that the caution could show on a standard or enhanced DBS check for upto 6 years

[Amethyst]

I think (after thinking about it lol ) possibly they were 'warning' about civil recovery rather than 'backing' it.

[EmmaJ]

I honestly can't fault the police, they were very professional but still firm, they were definitely warning me about their rogue practices rather than anything else. Thanks for the advice, I'll wait and see what happens next - keep you posted