Sainsbury's DFW Law

[Herbie22]

Hi I wonder if someone can help please
My daughter worked for Sainsburys through the Covid lockdown and had a discount card together with her mother
We have a joint account and sometimes her mother paid and sometimes I did when we shop together but the discount always stayed under her mother's control
She received a letter to say misuse of the discount had been detected, we are assuming it was the issue above as this was all we could think went wrong
My daughter had an investigation meeting and was invited to a hearing but was going to leave for another job anyway so resigned so the hearing never went ahead
She left 2 months ago but has today received a letter from DWF Law demanding £150 for investigation and apprehension for a theft within store on a particular date, she has never stolen and was not in the store on the alleged date
She called DWF who said it was for the discount card misuse and not a theft incident
Despite asking Sainsburys never provided the evidence of the alleged transactions, just the dates, we could not correlate the transactions to bank statements. When talking to her manager on her last day he stated they were not intending to terminate and were looking at a warning
She has asked DWF to provide the investigation and evidence they are alluding to and they have said they have referred this to the store
Please can someone help advise if it is best we pay, I have seen other threads advising to ignore but is this still the best way forward?
Thank You

[FEPFEP]

Before anyone can demand money from you, they need to clearly set out what it is for and why it is being sought.
Whilst it may well be that you daughter DID breach some condition in "the small print", that does not allow a charge to be raised without clear details.
If I were your daughter, I think that I would be inclined not to pay this unsubstantiated demand, effectively leaving it to them to take further steps to justify, or to forget it, or to commence legal proceedings. Whilst the last one my sound scary, the reality, as the lawyers will know, is that commencing proceedings without a pre-action stage that complies with court rules, (see here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pro...action_conduct) is not likely to go well for them.
I think that should should write to the lawyers to put on record, 1. That she does not understand what she is being asked money for and that she requires detailed explanation; 2. That she categorically denies ever having committed an act of theft against Sainsbury's, 3. That she considers that the allegation of theft may have defamed her and that she is considering her legal position, reserving the right to sue.
It is no good for the lawyers to pass the blame to Sainsbury's. They are the ones making demands for money. Either they are Sainsbury's agent, in which case your daughter can deal with them as if they were Sainsburys, or they are not Sainsbury's agent, in which case they are the principals in making the demand and they cannot hide behind a third party.
Good luck

[ostell]

Usual is ignore DFW

[Herbie22]

Thanks for your replies. I did say to her this was a defamation of character but wasn't sure if this was a valid counter claim and how to go about this. I am also not sure if Sainsburys have broken any GDPR rules by passing on her details, any thoughts please