Have been accused of theft?
Discussion
Eclassy said:
kev b said:
Next thing I was in an interview room, under caution, with the tape running, no offer of legal representation offered, no evidence against me was shown despite the town cctv cameras covering the area.
The whole experience was pretty disconcerting and left me with zero respect for the police, I refused to accept a caution because I was blame free and eventually they released me, NFA and no caution.
IANAL so the only decent advice I can give the OP is to be very very careful before doing anything or doing nothing, a solicitor would probably be a sensible move despite the expense.
This is exactly what happened to a mate of mine but some on here will tell you it never happens. My mate was a bit switched on and told them he was happy to answer all questions but in the presence of a solicitor. They refused his request and then arrested him for prompt and effective investigation by way of interview which happened almost 10 hours later .The whole experience was pretty disconcerting and left me with zero respect for the police, I refused to accept a caution because I was blame free and eventually they released me, NFA and no caution.
IANAL so the only decent advice I can give the OP is to be very very careful before doing anything or doing nothing, a solicitor would probably be a sensible move despite the expense.
It should cost you nothing if you bring your own solicitor. That first representation is paid for by the govt
Their response was to arrest me in front my work colleagues, cuffs and all, lock me in a cell for 7 hours with no PACE (despite constant asking), ransacking two addresses relating to me (finding nothing) and confiscating my phone and PC for four months. With further threats to take my car under the proceeds of crime.
Finally got bailed at 8pm where I asked how I was supposed to get home as my car was now locked in at work. "Not my problem mate!"
I lived 20 miles away from work so I had to sit in a Sainsburys for an hour waiting to be picked up.Two days later I was back at work, helping the Police with their investigation. Talk about a surreal week!
I gave the Detective Inspector hell for those four months and even ended up having a meeting with the head of the Constabulary in question
Ultimately ended up getting about £700 in compensation as they screwed up so badly and returned my PC non working. Nothing for the grief they caused but it was more a moral victory for me. OP. Make no mistake. You will be arrested!
Oh and I still work for the same company
Every credit to you BV72 for your offer of help. Cap doffed. A gent.
To the OP, on the face if it, it looks like you've not had a great service. I'd have expected some sort of contact from the officer, even if only to say it's going to take a while. Good manners if nothing else. As others have said though, the officer could be on leave (and in an ideal world should have contacted you before leave just to let you know nothing was happening).
One of my favourite complaints was a fraud I dealt with a few years back. I had 5 weeks off to got to Oz. I'd sorted all the production orders for the bank stuff before I went away. When I got back from leave, it still hadn't all come through. The aggrieved dicing think I should have so much leave at once... Despite the fact I'd told him what was happening with the bank stuff and the fact I'd be on leave. Some people are never happy.
To the OP, on the face if it, it looks like you've not had a great service. I'd have expected some sort of contact from the officer, even if only to say it's going to take a while. Good manners if nothing else. As others have said though, the officer could be on leave (and in an ideal world should have contacted you before leave just to let you know nothing was happening).
One of my favourite complaints was a fraud I dealt with a few years back. I had 5 weeks off to got to Oz. I'd sorted all the production orders for the bank stuff before I went away. When I got back from leave, it still hadn't all come through. The aggrieved dicing think I should have so much leave at once... Despite the fact I'd told him what was happening with the bank stuff and the fact I'd be on leave. Some people are never happy.
Breadvan72 said:
OP, tell your solicitor that I will draft you a libel claim for free. Check that he or she is up to date with the 2013 Act. Most general solicitors know little about defamation.
Take screenshots of each defamatory web page.
Wow many thanks for the offer breadvan! Take screenshots of each defamatory web page.
Yea he is going to pass it on to a colleague as it's not his field.
I have screenshots of all the web pages.
Although from what I understand suing her May be very expensive, and very hard to prove any "loss"
Although I would love to sue her and try and get some of my legal costs back, but can't see it being worthwhile?
But worth a letter or two to make her back down!
I already have got 192 to remove the comment, the others have been reported.
R1 Indy said:
Wow many thanks for the offer breadvan!
Yea he is going to pass it on to a colleague as it's not his field.
I have screenshots of all the web pages.
Although from what I understand suing her May be very expensive, and very hard to prove any "loss"
Although I would love to sue her and try and get some of my legal costs back, but can't see it being worthwhile?
But worth a letter or two to make her back down!
I already have got 192 to remove the comment, the others have been reported.
good luck with it. Yell is the one you need to hammer as it comes back first in the google listings, but you are looking extremely good on rated people so I wouldn't worry about this.Yea he is going to pass it on to a colleague as it's not his field.
I have screenshots of all the web pages.
Although from what I understand suing her May be very expensive, and very hard to prove any "loss"
Although I would love to sue her and try and get some of my legal costs back, but can't see it being worthwhile?
But worth a letter or two to make her back down!
I already have got 192 to remove the comment, the others have been reported.
given how rated people shows the star rating straight away people will see this and go there to read the reviews. So many 5* reviews says it all really.
Efbe said:
good luck with it. Yell is the one you need to hammer as it comes back first in the google listings, but you are looking extremely good on rated people so I wouldn't worry about this.
given how rated people shows the star rating straight away people will see this and go there to read the reviews. So many 5* reviews says it all really.
Yes Yell is the one concerning me most, as I get a fair bit of local trade through it.given how rated people shows the star rating straight away people will see this and go there to read the reviews. So many 5* reviews says it all really.
BTW how did you find my company name, to google me?
fyfe said:
R1 Indy said:
Yes Yell is the one concerning me most, as I get a fair bit of local trade through it.
BTW how did you find my company name, to google me?
I reckon he looked at your profile. You've parked your van in shot...BTW how did you find my company name, to google me?
"cctv installer in gloucester" not many of them, and I knew you had bad feedback
stalker alert!!! From a comment earlier on this thread someone had done the same let me know it was possible
liner33 said:
La Liga said:
weeks isn't long if the officer has 30 other crimes he / she's in charge of and comes on duty to people in the cells to deal with.
Really ?? What do you consider to be a reasonable period of time to interview a robbery suspect ?? "For a prompt and effective investigation"
we so far appear to have an ill formed allegation of little basis stemming from a civil dispute, we don't know if the Complainant is all ready known to the local police as an low level nuisance or if the way the complaint was made has also set seeds of doubt in the OiCs mind ...
OP, suing for libel would indeed be a hassle with cost risks unless you could persuade someone to do it on a conditional fee agreement. Proving damage would be fiddly, but not impossible, especially if you can show a drop in trade correlating in time to the defamatory web publications. The best bet is to persuade the website operators to remove the defamatory posts.
For a good and not mega expensive solicitor, try Arj Arul at M Law in Reading.
For a good and not mega expensive solicitor, try Arj Arul at M Law in Reading.
I add that the law requires evidence of serious harm to reputation, and in the case of an individual (ie non corporate) claimant this need not be limited to quantifiable financial loss. Calling a trader a thief on trader reference sites is, I think, sufficiently harmful to reputation to be actionable.
It may be worth mentioning that simply because a letter is written or claim is lodged for libel that this does not mean the OP is bound to end up in the High Court in a few months time.
With my 'business hat' firmly on, a couple of years back my business had a relatively similar situation where a competitor in a particular niche had copied our marketing materials both in format and some areas word for word.
After getting specialist advice, the solicitor fired off a letter informing the company about 'passing off' and copyright infringement. This was after I was told that a court claim would be far from certain, and more costly than we would reasonably feel proportional. We might have had the ability of severely financially disabling a sole-trader competitor if we were to continue. However, the main risk was the financial damage to our company if we did nothing.
As we thought, within a week of the letter dropping on their doorstep, we got a written response from a local non-specialist solicitor saying they would desist and apologised for the error, yada yada with assurances that it would never happen again.
The reason I bring this up is because the OP is in the same situation. Doing something about the infringement/libel has risk of costs however, importantly, there is a risk in doing nothing.
For all we know, this is the old bat's first salvo of online reviews. The purpose of involving solicitors may not be to get financial redress, but simply to fire a very strong shot across the bows to bring the infringing actions to a swift end.
We don't know the personality of the old bat, but, I can only think of a very small proportion of people who after getting the shock of a lifetime when they receive a solicitor's letter of claim on their doorstep which could have severe financial consequences would not take is very seriously.
My guess is that she will either crap herself and delete everything, and/or go an see a local solicitor. This latter outcome may be a perfect outcome, as I am certain a solicitor will advice her strongly to remove the libellous comments and never even think of going down that route again. They may even give her more perspective on the wider theft situation.
With my 'business hat' firmly on, a couple of years back my business had a relatively similar situation where a competitor in a particular niche had copied our marketing materials both in format and some areas word for word.
After getting specialist advice, the solicitor fired off a letter informing the company about 'passing off' and copyright infringement. This was after I was told that a court claim would be far from certain, and more costly than we would reasonably feel proportional. We might have had the ability of severely financially disabling a sole-trader competitor if we were to continue. However, the main risk was the financial damage to our company if we did nothing.
As we thought, within a week of the letter dropping on their doorstep, we got a written response from a local non-specialist solicitor saying they would desist and apologised for the error, yada yada with assurances that it would never happen again.
The reason I bring this up is because the OP is in the same situation. Doing something about the infringement/libel has risk of costs however, importantly, there is a risk in doing nothing.
For all we know, this is the old bat's first salvo of online reviews. The purpose of involving solicitors may not be to get financial redress, but simply to fire a very strong shot across the bows to bring the infringing actions to a swift end.
We don't know the personality of the old bat, but, I can only think of a very small proportion of people who after getting the shock of a lifetime when they receive a solicitor's letter of claim on their doorstep which could have severe financial consequences would not take is very seriously.
My guess is that she will either crap herself and delete everything, and/or go an see a local solicitor. This latter outcome may be a perfect outcome, as I am certain a solicitor will advice her strongly to remove the libellous comments and never even think of going down that route again. They may even give her more perspective on the wider theft situation.
Edited by JustinP1 on Tuesday 21st October 09:55
Don't get me wrong BV, legally speaking, I totally agree. Especially in the context of a money claim. In the situation of a money claim, before you issue the claim the status quo is that you are alive and healthy, and the claim is an optional expense and risk.
I mentioned having my 'business hat' on in my post, as the above is not the case for the OP.
There is damage being caused if he does nothing. There is even the risk that if he does nothing that the situation worsens. It's also too late to do something when the OP has lost the majority of his business.
Looking at the risks involved the OP has to put a value on:
a) The loss of business due to the libellous comments, now an in the future, against
b) The legal costs of the letter, plus the old bat's legal costs if he were to roll over once action has started
I'd say a) is higher and pretty much a certainty of loss to some extent. Also the odds of the old bat throwing the book back and not acceding immediately to stop her actions are very slim.
I mentioned having my 'business hat' on in my post, as the above is not the case for the OP.
There is damage being caused if he does nothing. There is even the risk that if he does nothing that the situation worsens. It's also too late to do something when the OP has lost the majority of his business.
Looking at the risks involved the OP has to put a value on:
a) The loss of business due to the libellous comments, now an in the future, against
b) The legal costs of the letter, plus the old bat's legal costs if he were to roll over once action has started
I'd say a) is higher and pretty much a certainty of loss to some extent. Also the odds of the old bat throwing the book back and not acceding immediately to stop her actions are very slim.
La Liga said:
jagracer said:
She's not actually accusing you of theft though
R1 Indy said:
She has only gone and reviewed me on as many online sites as she can (yell, 192, free index etc) accusing me of theft!!
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff