Your rights in the UK if accused of shoplifting?

kirasia

To be honest, to the people who don't believe the OP, why on earth would she want to go back to the store to get her stuff back if it was stolen in the first place?!

And to the OP, don't quote me on this, but when I worked in a popular high street store a couple of years back, we weren't allowed to stop anyone who we suspected had been pinching things, ever if it was really obvious ie, bulging jackets, and at one time, a little boy who a load of stuff fell out of his blazer.. :rolleyes: etc etc, if we hadn't seen them physically pick the stuff up from the shelf and put it in their bag/coat/pocket. We were however, allowed to use the shopwatch radio to alert other stores that there was a 'possible' thief about, and describe them.

I also don't think they had the right to confiscate items that weren't from their store, and then ban you from their store.. they should've contacted the store/stores in question where the items were from & then they could have handled it, checked cctv etc etc.

I often don't take bags now because people look down their nose at you for not recycling an ooooold bag, or you have to pay.. whats the point, you're only going to take it home and either chuck it or put it with all the other plastic bags you have

bloggie

katie85 wrote: »

I was in a shop today and when I walked through the security gate the alarm went off. Having nothing to hide, I went back to the counter and they searched my bag. Inside my handbag I had several garments that had been purchased that day. They asked me for 'security reasons' (as this was in a shopping centre) if I had the receipts for these garments, and I explained that my boyfriend had purchased them and therefore I did not have them on me, and he had already left for home.
I was then asked by a store detective to come into the back room,where I was told to empty my bag. He and a female colleague searched through my things and confiscated everything that I did not have receipts for. Was this legal? was I within my rights to just leave the shop, as they had no evidence and also they did not find anything on me that had been stolen, especially from their store?
The shop that detained me knew that I hadn't taken anything from their store, as they searched me and found nothing. Did they still have the right to keep me there, when the suspicion was regarding goods from another shop?
I'm in the UK, and have not been able to find anything solid regarding the law on this, any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

well, from what I know from experience and life in general, I would have made a huge fuss and told them to call the police and threatened to sue them. They must see you take something and leave their shop, they cannot detain you for any other reason. Citizens arrest can indeedy be used by everyone of us, but we cannot grab hold of anyone - this is assault.
I sometimes get followed around shops and it truly irks me as I people watch and some guards think that this means you are staking the place out! but if I was to ever be stopped, then I would indeed talk really loudly and make a huge fuss and not let them touch me, until the police were in attendance, and at that point, then make an official complaint of assault or imprisonment.
there are of course real shoplifters about, but I'mnot one and from reading your post, neither were you. I take things out of bags and put them into my rucksack or pocket for ease and also to save plastic bag usage. Sometimes *golly gosh!*, I throw the receipt in the bin outside the shop I bought the items from, if I've paid cash. (I take cc ones home to shred).
Unless they have actually seen you pick something up with your hands and secreted it away on your person or are still holding it and walk out of the door with out paying, they have no right what so ever, to detain you.
I re-iterate, citizens arrest can be used by anyone in the uk and you cannot restrain people.

bluep

I would have demanded that they call the police, threatened to call my solicitor and suggested that if they were so worried (without any proof) that I had stolen the items from the other store, to contact them to ask them to review their security tapes (showing the items being paid for!)...goes without saying, boyfriend and receipts, or call to credit card company authorised by boyfriend to fax over proof of purchase would also be on my list of things to do...

I would have been absolutely spitting mad as well. This kind of thing is very damaging to reputation and insulting.

I often refuse a bag if I don't need one and put items in my handbag/briefcase or in another shop's bag if I already have one. That's being environmental...not dodgey!

morocha

What a shame OP, I hope you get your things back.
I often go into shops and because i am so "me", i never can decide if i want this or that.. then go around with it.. then finally leave it there.... or buy things and i hate carrying bags so i try to fit everything in my personal bag , I have to say aswell that i never keep receipts.. so if i go to a shop.. and i've bought something i am not likely to go back.. in case they think i have been taking things. I Also always go shopping with my 2 years old without a pram , because she likes to walk. I know i am the perfect person to be accused of shoplifting... and sometimes when carrying bags around and my little one in my other hands.. and trying to watch something else.. i think.. ohh my i hope they dont think i am trying to steal.
I do believe OP story.

MrsE_2

chalkysoil wrote: »

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

I wouldn't have handed anything over or allowed them to search me, if they didn't call the police I would have!

MrsE_2

McKneff wrote: »

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.

I usually won't take bags for small items, I put them straight in my giant handbag:o

duh

can't you just get the receipts (if you don' t have them anymore, get a statement off your d/c card), march into the store, demand your stuff back and ask for an apology in the absence of which report the store for theft.
I wouldn't let this lie if I knew I was in the right.
If your question is purely from a legal point of view i.e was the store right to detain you in a large shopping centre? The answer is yes..if the security in all the shops is part of single scheme - they would alert each other and you can consider yourself lucky not to have got nicked.

mapcr77

chalkysoil wrote: »

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.

I usually have a rucksack or a huge handbag, and for environmental reasons I never take bags -i also have a folding shopping bag within my handbag/rucksack-. So everything gets chucked into my bags, whatever these are. There's no law that says that new items must be carried with their receipt in a shop-handed disposable bag! what's more, sometimes I get rid of the receipts soon after I leave the shop (i.e. when i buy toiletteries, make up, papers/mags and that, as there's no way I'd come back for a refund if they don't fit ), as I hate how all the receipts accumulate in my wallet.

So I don't think it that unusual that the OP should have put her purchases in her bag...

hieveryone

Now that I'm thinking about this, the alarm went off in a Tesco store once when I was ENTERING and the security guy asked me to look in my bag. I didn't really know what I was supposed to do (i.e refuse etc) and was a bit bemused as it had went off on the way IN not OUT.

Anyway, he had a good rake around my handbag and it was found that in my bronzer box (Hoola, from Benefit), Boots had left a small tag like thing on it (the same kind you get on CD's, white, plastic rectangular tag), and he removed this for me, and made me walk back out and back in the store!

Me and my pal had a bit of a giggle about it but now I'm thinking he was totally out of order!

reehsetin

i think it was reasonable to ask to search your bags/show them whats in them although you didn't have to show them (but that would have meant the police etc etc I would have done the same)
It was out of order for them to take your items though, if there was nothing from their store then it's nothing to do with them, did they make any reasonable efforts to see if you had paid for the items (e.g. ring the store and ask them if anyone remembered you paying etc) I don't think there is was any reason or that they had any right to take the goods from you!! if they thought you were a shoplifter that badly and the goods were stolen they should have called the police and left it to them, any potential theft only involved you, the police, and the store the goods came from nothing to do with them!