Your rights in the UK if accused of shoplifting?

delain

If you really do have the reciepts just go and present them to the store police, whenever they call you back. Try to speak to the person who stopped you. job done. The fact that this didn't get done suggests that you didn't have the reciepts with bf either

nametaken

Sorry but I think the security people had every right to do what they did. Why did you not ring your boyfriend and ask him to come with the receipts

woohoo_postingid

Hi, try here:

http://www.closeprotectionworld.co.uk/security-guarding-forum/443-can-someone-clarify-legal-rights-security-guards.html

chalkysoil

I often put small things in my handbag to stop them getting lost - eg mascara, lipstick, a little vase I bought in a charity shop, a bar of chocolate, a tin of coke I'm going to drink when I get outside. If some shop had confiscated them because I might have stolen them from a different shop I would have been furious. I wouldn't have signed anything and might well have asked for the police to be called to assess the situation. Where do the rules say you have to have a receipt on you for everything in your handbag? I most certainly don't. Don't shops have cctv over their tills which would prove the items were paid for? Yesterday I bought a handbag in a charity shop and emptied everything out of my knackered handbag in to it and the shop assistant kindly cut the price label off for me. Another customer in the shop went out wearing a top she'd bought in there (it got hot suddenly). Ok charity shops are smaller and less military, but really, that shopping centre sounds like it's in a fascist state not the UK. I hope you get your paid for stuff back ok and some compensation for the distress and waste of time. Did they say why the alarm went off? It's happened to me and dh a couple of times in Tesco but they have always glanced at our trolley and waved us on so I assume those machines have their moments.

McKneff

If i was buying small things that i wanted ot put into my bag, lipstick, knickers,
mascara, they would be in a bag in my bag.

hayley11

I think if the OP is telling it how it really is, then she was treated really badly and she should not let this go.

OP - If you now have the receipts, or when your boyfriend gets his credit/debit card statement, I would go back to the store and demand your things. I would also put in a complaint to the store.

I've put small things in my handbag now and again, if i'm only buying say a packet of tissues or a small item of make up etc, I don't need a carrier bag so I just pop it straight in my bag.

Froggitt

My missus got stopped in M&S suspected of something......they reviewed the CCTV then let her go after an hour or so. We didnt let it go and eventually they coughed up a grand in vouchers to go with the flowers they delivered same day.

geri1965_2

I often put shopping in my handbag - even clothes (I have quite a large bag) as I am sick of collecting carrier bags (I normally have the receipts though).

I don't think secutiry guards can confiscate anything in your bag because you don't have a receipt for it, especially if it doesn't come from their own store!

I would get the receipts from your OH and go down there straight away. I'd even be inclined to report them to the police for theft, as they have no right to take your things.

poppet

Well it's a good job your BF has the receipts, now you can go marching back in there waving the receipts under their nose and demand your belongings back! ... I would also expect an apology from the store...and quite probably some sort of compensation.

re the bag thing ... we are constantly being encouraged to use fewer plastic bags? I quite often refuse a store carrier bag and just drop my purchases straight into my handbag.

j1mgg

Most shopping centres nowadays have radio contact with each store to warn others of known shoplifter.

I would go to the local police station and ask for your items back as if you believed they would be sent there. I wouldnt have left the shop without my goods and would rather have waited till the police got there.