Shop lifting

gayleanne

The police penalty fine will have to be paid, otherwise they will take the case to Magistrates court. M&S civil fine does not have to be paid, it is usually issued by a firm of solicitors, just email them stating that you are not paying, it is not a legal fine, it has no standing in law, and they can not take you to court for not paying it.

houseimprover

its a fairly common tactic for a thief to put something unpaid into their basket/trolley and pay for the rest of the goods and take this as their extra bit of discount.

Not saying the op did this as it could have been a genuine mistake but more often than not its a tactic.

SailorSam

I wondered the same as Pollycat, if it were one small item i could accept that it could be easily missed, but you say 'goods'. Could you miss a few items ????

Jnugent

It was 1 pack of 2 boxer shorts costing £10

vaio

gayleanne wrote: »

The police penalty fine will have to be paid, otherwise they will take the case to Magistrates court. M&S civil fine does not have to be paid, it is usually issued by a firm of solicitors, just email them stating that you are not paying, it is not a legal fine, it has no standing in law, and they can not take you to court for not paying it.

You sure? I thought it was compensation for the costs you put them to by shoplifting and whilst it isn't a fine they certainly can take you to civil court to recover.

Obviously, if the OP is innocent then neither need to be paid but, if they accept the fixed penalty they will struggle to defend the civil case

Pollycat

What did they (security guard/manager/police) say when you said it was a genuine mistake?

How did you happen to miss these items when you were paying for your other stuff?

NiallB

Was there a magnet involved?