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Assaulted by Tesco store security

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  • connoro30
    connoro30 Posts: 193 Forumite
    Look on the bright side - at least you'll be clean shaven, and it cost you nothing.

    ;)
  • MT90
    MT90 Posts: 1,446 Forumite
    Andy347 wrote: »
    Actually i think you will find its 100% lawful. :beer:

    Providing the Security Officers are licensed by the SIA, had reasonable grounds to believe that you had stolen something from their store (either saw you with their own eyes/saw you on cctv/you set off the alarm),
    then they were/are acting fully and totally within the law if they use reasonable force to detain you either inside or outside their store.


    Ive spent 11years working in the nightclub security industry and so know exactly what im talking about. :o

    Well no, its unlawful.

    Security guards have no more power than you (your legal power, not made up ones) or me. They can make a citizens arrest if they have reasonable grounds that a theft has taken place. However what is reasonable grounds is the key. Alarms going of is very unlikely to be deemed reasonable grounds, mainly because every Tom, !!!!!! and Harry knows they go off willy nilly, or when a cashier has forgotten something.

    We are talking civil law, different burdens of proof. For a security to reasonably cover themselves they would really need to know what was stolen, or at least where about (ie. watched them place the item in their pocket/bag) and watched them via CCTV or person for the duration of their 'shop'.

    An SIA license confers no extra powers to a security guard, it just allows them to work in certain areas of the industry.

    As for you being a nightclub bouncers, yea, they are pretty infamous for committing assault, if the customers weren't drunk half of them would be in prison.
  • myrnahaz
    myrnahaz Posts: 1,117 Forumite
    It costs nothing to wait for security to check your shopping - and being obstructive just makes them more suspicious of you. I set-off the door alarm in Tesco a few weeks ago after walking through at the same time as several other people. I waved my bags back past the scanner (which set the alarm off again) so I waited for the security guy who saw that the cashier had forgotten to remove the tag off an item of clothing. The moral of my story is this: allowing the (polite and apologetic) security man to check my shopping saved me a return trip to remove the tag.
  • ThinkingOfLinking
    ThinkingOfLinking Posts: 11,828 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    Takoda wrote: »
    I always stand still if I beep when leaving a store. It hardly ever happens but when it does if no one from the shop approaches me then I walk on.

    It seems to me that the OP looked like he was legging it.

    Me too. That's what ANY level-headed person would do.
  • Equaliser123
    Equaliser123 Posts: 3,404 Forumite
    Me too. That's what ANY level-headed person would do.

    Yeah, agreed. Trouble is sometimes the numbskulls that hold themselves out as being "Security" don't exactly endear themselves and antagonise the situation.

    We've all seen them...
  • unholyangel
    unholyangel Posts: 16,866 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Yeah, agreed. Trouble is sometimes the numbskulls that hold themselves out as being "Security" don't exactly endear themselves and antagonise the situation.

    We've all seen them...

    Power Trippers? :D You usually find people who thrive on power strive to attain careers in postitions of authority. Not saying everyone in those positions are abusers but a fair % of them are.
    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means - Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride
  • unholyangel
    unholyangel Posts: 16,866 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    TBH everything else aside, if the alarm was set off then that alone would at least provide the basis for the belief they have stolen something.

    The fact they failed to stop and co-operate as any reasonable person would...........provides affirmation.

    You may have just been in a hurry but the guards wouldnt know that and logically, it would look like you were trying to avoid them.

    As i've said several times throughout the thread, the OP is at least partially to blame imo as their actions contributed directly to the outcome.
    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means - Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride
  • BLT_2
    BLT_2 Posts: 1,307 Forumite
    I'm most certainly not a lawyer, but as a layman all bets were off as soon as he laid hands on me.

    My condolences, clearly you don't get out much if this is, as it appears to be, the biggest event that has ever happened to you in your life. A simple solution would have been to let the security guards check your bag instead of ignoring them and carrying on walking.

    In future hide the stolen items down your socks instead of trying to smuggle them out amongst the cheese dips and value carrots, then you won't have to worry about your shopping being searched.
  • BLT_2
    BLT_2 Posts: 1,307 Forumite
    Takoda wrote: »
    The OP sounds like a muppet but what he describes doesn't seem to me to be reasonable force at all - it seems heavy handed given the circumstances.


    The circumstances being that the Troll in question ignored them when they tried to talk to it and just carried on walking. I would say there are reasonable grounds for restraint there.
  • a27
    a27 Posts: 154 Forumite
    BLT wrote: »
    My condolences, clearly you don't get out much if this is, as it appears to be, the biggest event that has ever happened to you in your life. A simple solution would have been to let the security guards check your bag instead of ignoring them and carrying on walking.

    In future hide the stolen items down your socks instead of trying to smuggle them out amongst the cheese dips and value carrots, then you won't have to worry about your shopping being searched.

    Do the scanners not detect at foot level?
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