http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/retail-loss-prevention/231907-questions-16yrs-caught-q.html

Ad hominem attack deleted by site team.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/retail-loss-prevention/235658-shoplifting-7-different-stores.html

Isnt it time that this was removed as being a poor piece of advice???

Than you Peter, a positive and factual reply, you wont go far on here. Shame.

Yes, I do have facts to back it up. I suggest you research. I think you will find that the majority on here have been caught stealing and want to get out of paying. The ones who ask for help on here are not the ones campaigning for an easing of the penalties for theft!!! As soon as anyone speaks up for their own corner....you jump on your soapbox. Now...one last point....how about some advice for the OP instead of jumping on me. I did it...why on earth can't you?

They do not "target" those people. They are doing what they are instructed to do, it is the fault of the retailer or security provider. There are more thieves than those "labelled offenders" on CAG. The fact that they have been dealt with by way of FPN is an admission of guilt...is it not. They are given the choice to refuse it. If you broke my window...and I seen you do it, does it really take a court of law to say, yes you did do it?? If you are caught stealing, is it not better to say yes, I did do it, take the civil recovery on the chin and be thankful that you have not ended up with a police record, a possible £80 FPN or a day in court. Any suggestions for the cure to shoplifting would be welcome, in the mean time, this is the way the retailers are deciding to go, it is a growing industry and more and more retailers are using it....can it be that wrong then??

I agree that their due diligence is poor, but again, that part of the process should begin at the store. As disgusting a business as you think it is, it is however, somewhat less disgusting than the business of being a thief. I seriously doubt that RLP or any other institution would be in the business of exploiting anyone that has not been a thief and to suggest that they do is nothing less than slanderous. 900,000 people were caught shoplifting last year and going on current stats, that means nearly 10 million got away with it. If anyone has been badly done by there are ways of dealing with this and the good people!! on this forum are excellent at supporting them in doing so. Thieveing is a disgusting business and anyone who detracts or advises against dealing with them in a less than firm manner is no better than the thieves themselves.

and as any decent retailer will do in this economic climate, they try to use other means (civil recovery, safer cases,CCTV, security officers, data mining, EAS alarms, Radford gates...etc etc) in order to be able to reduce prices for the consumer and take this theft cost out of the business. If the cost of theft is covered, then why do they have all these other costs within the business, surely that does not make sense???

RLP only did what they were instructed to do, they very obviously did not have the full facts of this case. The fault lies with the retailer or security provider and I have suggested that the OP does contact both for a remedy to this. One major retailer recently paid out £55000 to an individual who was wrongly arrested. It is worth the hassle of doing it.

Yes I do, I have just been through all the reported ones. 1. Arrested because he carried a weapon whilst carrying out the arrest, charged with carrying an offensive weapon. 2. Arrested because of conflicting stories after he arrested someone breaking into a car. The arrest was in order to carry out further enquiries, all charges later dropped. 3. Arrested on suspision of attacking a youth during an arrest. Conflicting stories, charges later dropped. 4. Chip shop owner Nicholas Tyers, 46, and son Lee, 20, appear to have fallen foul of some of these grey areas after they spotted the 12-year-old suspect in the street and drove him back to their Bridlington shop, a day after the alleged offence, before alerting police. Mr Tyers said he believed he was "doing his public duty" but then endured "six months of hell" until his case was dismissed by Judge John Dowse at Hull Crown Court. The judge said the Tyers had acted "reasonably", leaving the Crown Prosecution to defend the prosecution as "being in the public interest". I cannot find anyone as yet that has been locked up or prosecuted. Now, bearing in mind the amount of people who have been arrested for doing wrong....that is a small proportion. Those who have been wrongly arrested by a security officer have recourse and use it, as I have suggested that the person in this case does. For you to say that a security officer can only hold an offender for 30 minutes is very wrong and very poor advice from you and I urge you to withdraw it before some unfortunate thief reading these articles tries to walk out and something nasty happens.

Tesco lost £170 million to shop thieves last year. That is why your civil recovery is so much.

So, if i catch someone breaking into your house, and the police cant come right away, I have to let them go after 30 minutes.....ridiculous!!! Where is this code laid out?? If no offence has been commited, and I ramble on about this a lot, then there should be no detention. If a crime has been commited, then they are held until a constable arrives, if that is 3 hours, then that is a problem for the police and not a security officer. It is the police that must deal with it in a timely manner, not a security officer.

You have a serious case for compensation from either H&M or the company that supplies the security officer. Make enquiries and contact them. Tell them you will go to the press with this if they fail to correspond. A security officer can hold anyone they believe to be guilty of an offence until the officer arrives, whether that be 30 minutes or 30 hours.....there is some really poor advice given out on this forum. Section 24 of PACE does not exist anymore, it has been replaced by SOCAP 2005, again, poor advice given out.

When you got to EuroDisney, if you found the item, would you have returned it to its owner??