hi everyone HELP NEEDED! a month ago i got dimissed for dishonesty from boots ( i was completely honest with them) recently i received a letter from RLP for intended civil recovering, they told me to be patient and wait for the second letter to arrive which will state how much i would have to pay thanks in advance

Hi everyone I have been reading the various threads and I know the general consensus is to ignore all RLP letters and it's very unlikely they will start court proceedings. I received my first letter from RLP, a week or so back. I replied, asking for a breakdown in their costs. I received a reply today with details of the costs (staff/management time £52.50, admin £15.75, security £19.25). RLP also included details of the incident in their letter and they have given me 21 days to respond. My options are to pay in full, pay by installments or contact RLP to negotiate a settlement. I also received an ADR from the police (a verbal ticking off) and RLP mention of this in the letter. I know the advice is to ignore all letters and eventually they will go away, but I have never been involved in anything like this before, and since receiving this second letter, really want to pay the full amount or write to them regarding a settlement. If I pay/settle, will this be the end of the matter, does anyone know? I really don't want to be on the receiving end of letters and more threats of legal action, and certainly don't want to be involved in any court action! Your advice would be very much appreciated, thank you. Vicky

Hi everyone, I am after some advice and any help anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated, I apologise in advance for the length of this post however I thought it was important to include every detail. Yesterday morning (23/8/2010) my mother was in the Boots store in Belfast city centre on her way home from her night shift as a nurse. She had a couple of No7 promo vouchers (receive £5 off No7 products) and was looking at the self tan products. There was a couple of different ones she was looking at and as there were no testers available she did what I am sure a lot of us have done and took them out of their box to have a closer look- I personally feel with such products it really is necessary to be able to test before buying as self tan can either smell really bad, be an awful colour etc etc. She then realised that she needed to make a decision quickly or she would miss her bus and then quickly put them back in the boxes, put them neatly back on the shelf and made her way to the checkouts. At the checkouts she remembered she needed deodorant as well so quickly dashed to get it, she paid for her items and then realised there was no way she was making the bus that she had originally planned on getting so she decided that as she now had a bit of spare time before the next bus she would continue to browse - she had other vouchers so she purchased some more No7 products for my father. After spending a further 15mins in the store she went to leave and was stopped by the security guard who told her she must accompany him, she had absolutley no idea what was wrong so of course she did what he asked. It turned out that when she was putting the bottles back into the boxes, she had accidently put the wrong bottle in the wrong box she was shocked at this and apologised she didnt think it was a serious offence but more of an embarrasing mistake and she felt a bit silly - her reaction was to apologise and immediatley try to pay the £1.60 price difference or to just swap the bottles over so that the right ones were in the right boxes (she had actually intended to purchase the cheaper product not the more expensive one that she had mistakingly put in the box). The security guard was extremely aggressive and rude treating her and contacted the police. The police then arrived and asked if she had a criminal record she told them the truth- that she does not. The police then did a check and after doing so asked her once more for her DOB/Name etc.. when she once again provided these details the officers response was "I dont think thats correct now is it?" the police check had returned some one with the same name as my mother born on the same year and from Northern Ireland who had convictions for burglary etc. My mother protested that this person is not her but both the police officer and security guard would not even entertain the idea that she was telling the truth, she tried to tell them where she was born, where she was living and working etc at the time that they were trying to say she was being convicted of these crimes but they would not believe her. As she did not have any photographic ID on her she said she would ring my Dad so that the officer could confirm her details with him -the security man attempted to stop her using her phone for some time until the officer finally allowed her to, my dad confirmed her correct details however the police officer did not even believe him. She was told she had 2 choices- deny her "Crime" go to court and be prosecuted or sign an exlusion order banning her from Boots for life and from most of the stores in Belfast and elsewhere for 1 year. She signed the order as if she had been prosecuted she would have lost her job as a nurse etc. She is going to the police station asap to get proof that she does not have a criminal record however she is so upset over this and cannot believe she cannot go into most of the stores in Belfast for 1 year. She has been told she will receive a fine and to expect a letter detailing the amount - from researching online I am really scared that this will be a lot. I feel this is a complete disgrace my mother has been a loyal customer of Boots for years. I understand that they have to deal with shoplifters etc on a regular basis but surely they need to have the ability to distinguish between intentional theft and a genuine mistake- My mother made a mistake - she paid for all her items she simply paid for the wrong item, she said herself that when she would have realised when she returned home she would have went back and explained and changed it for the other one. Her actions were hardly those of a shoplifter however she was treated like absolute dirt, I simply do not believe that such a minor incident warranted involving the police and banning her for life etc. After reading other peoples accounts of similar incidents regarding Boots/RLP etc I feel that something needs to be done about this! Stores such as Boots maintain this golden image of a being one of the "good" guys - this could not be further from the truth. As I mentioned before - apologies for the length of this post but any help would be great - feel free to ask any more details that will help any more. Thank You