Wrongly Accused Shoplifting In Tesco - Help

pinkprincedss1980

I have to agree with what the other op's have said and question why on earth you didnt just show your receipt. I'm sure a fair few of us have either had alarms go off as weve left the store due to tags been left on items or been asked to show receipts an rather than make a fuss like you did we quite happily obilged an maybe even had a laugh an joke with security about it as they are only doing their jobs.
I think personally you brought all this on yourself and have no one else to blame other than yourself for the embarrassment you caused yoursef and the wasting of police and tesco staffs time.

CG19a

All Tesco security staff are trained in SCONE
Selection
Concealment
Observation
Non-Payment
Exit

When these 5 things have been "checked off" they will then stop someone. They had a suspicion that you had taken something, so they asked to see your receipt. When you wouldn't provide it, they can really only assume that you don't have one.

tsstss7

One thing that puzzles me here though - if op had shown receipt wouldn't they (tesco peeps that is ) still have demanded to see in op's private bag to verify that was what he put in there?

mrs2fat

op's a spaz, end of!

Treadway1

d123 wrote: »

This is not quite correct, the security guard has no power to detain or arrest beyond what any private citizen has. And citizens cannot make an arrest on suspicion of an offence having been committed. If the OP had decided to leave the store in this case and the security had used force to detain him it would have been unlawful, and a number of offences would have been committed against the OP.

For a citizens arrest to be lawful, the citizen needs to know that an arrestable offence has definitely been committed before making the arrest, only a constable can arrest on suspicion of an offence having been committed.

But I do agree the OP was stupid in the way they acted, there was no need to turn a simple request into a huge incident.

Thats not strictly true either Im afraid. The store security have the power to detain if:- They reasonably suspect an indictable offence (Used to be arrestable offence before the Serious Organised Crime and Police act 2005 came in) IS being commitedor HAS just been commited. This differs from Poilce in that they can arrest for the IS, and HAS offences, but also for MAYBE HAS and IS ABOUT TO BE offences, (I was taught this as a rhyme to the tune of Ooh ahh cantona, say ooh ahh cantona.... Try it. Is, Has, Maybe has, is about to be) meaning that if an offence was committed yesterday say, or an offence is about to be committed but has not yet been, then the Police could arrest but a citizen couldnt.

My point is that security have a power to stop people if they suspect an offence (which could attract a prison sentence of 6 months or more, which Theft obviously does), is being committed. Therefore they had every right to stop him. To say that they have to be 100% sure is impossible. For instance, if you were walking down the orad, and saw someone climbing out of a first floor house window onto a ladder, with a bag on his back, you may possibly think he was a burglar, so decide to detain him. Police arrive and it turns out the man had a perfectly legitimate reason for climbing out of the window. That doesnt mean your detention of him was unlawful, as you had a reasonable belief that he was burgling. Hope this makes sense.

Treadway1

tsstss7 wrote: »

One thing that puzzles me here though - if op had shown receipt wouldn't they (tesco peeps that is ) still have demanded to see in op's private bag to verify that was what he put in there?

They could have requested to look in his bag, had they seen the receipt and still not been happy, however, they obviously have no power of search, like Police so couldnt have searched his bag themselves. So in that scenario, they would still have to phone Police to come and search his bag.

Blacksheep1979

you should have been charged with wasting police time - all you had to do was be slightly more polite/reasonable and this would have been cleared up without wasting your or anyone elses time. Or do you want to feel 'special' and the center of attention?

justmel

My god how ridiculous! Do you not think police have better things to do than come out because you are being too awkward to show a damn reciept!

People like you really pee me off,you think you are above every rule in the book and waste police time-what if someone was in genuine need of their help?

You caused all the fuss by refusing to show a reciept,plenty of times i hav walked out of shops and had the security alarm go off when i have nothing to hide but do i throw a tantrum? No i let them check my bags and receipt and go on my merry way,its common sense.

bestpud

tsstss7 wrote: »

One thing that puzzles me here though - if op had shown receipt wouldn't they (tesco peeps that is ) still have demanded to see in op's private bag to verify that was what he put in there?

OMG, can you imagine what his reaction would have been to that!! :eek:

What a palaver!!

OP - I bet you were 'idiot of the day' back at the police station and in the Tesco store.

Now you want to give the complaints department a giggle at your expense too!

Just let it go! Have you no pride??

Sponge

I'm amazed you weren't charged with wasting Police time. You had the means to prove you hadn't stolen anything, but refused to use it and instead insisted the Police be called.

I appreciate you felt you'd done nothing wrong and shouldn't have to prove your innocence, but come on...you didn't exactly choose the path of least resistance, did you?