@Losspreventionguy thanks so much for responding. The guy that stopped me today didn’t appear to be a ‘typical’ store security guy; he was in plain clothes and apparently followed me round the whole shop, which is why I’m worried that they will indeed have the time and resources to trawl back through CCTV for previous instances. ’ve just got visions of them compiling all the earlier instances and, like I say, referring it to police or some sort of loss recovery firm. I’ve read online about cases where you’re summoned to court for retrospective shoplifting offences even if you weren’t detained at the time, based on a case built after the fact.

Hi all, hoping you can help me. Today I was caught shoplifting in Sainsburys; using self scan but not scanning all items. I was stopped by security when leaving the store, taken to an office whilst they checked the value of what I hadn’t paid for, which was £70 and was actually a surprise to me as I had no idea the cost of what I hadn’t paid for had racked up so high. They didn’t call the police and instead just banned me from the store. However, they told me that they would also go back through my previous Nectar card transactions vs. CCTV footage to see if I had done the same before - I guess they’ll look at past transactions using my Nectar card history, and then watch back the corresponding CCTV from that visit to store to see if I definitely paid for everything I put in my trolley. They said that if they found anything when they check this then it will go through a ‘different process.’ The big problem is; I have done it numerous times before and I suspect racked up £100s worth of stolen stuff. now I am absolutely terrified that they will see this, and start compiling a really extensive case of all the occasions where I have shoplifted, and refer it to the police. And god-forbid I have the police arrive at my house. I feel absolutely horrendous and I’m so so ashamed. I won’t make silly excuses; I’ve been going through a lot recently and I’ve behaved terribly. I’ll never do it again and I’m seeking counselling to get help. But now all I can think about is police turning up to my house when my kids are here. Any advice would be greatly greatly appreciated. Thank you.