Man with van stole from me

[Anonclutterissue]

I am in moray. I paid a man with a van to collect clutter from my house. it included some valuable items that could easily have been resold which I was fine with as I did not want the hassle myself.

I had used him once before and was very clear about what he was to take. I physically pointed out and pictured the exact items.

This was in December a few weeks before Christmas. On the day he tried to overcharge me saying he had staff to pay then lowered the price which still felt unfair especially as his van was not full.
to be fair, he did this the first time as well saying he didn’t realise how much stuff he was taking.

The main issue is that he took items I explicitly told him not to take. I only realised afterwards. The items were new and expensive. I did not have cameras so cannot prove it.

It was not a misunderstanding. I told him not to take anything from the shelves.

He also told me himself that he has a side business where he resells items. I know his man with a van page which is just his regular Facebook profile but I do not know the name of the side business. I did not accuse him of taking anything yet, but he is no longer responding to any of my messages at all.

I am angry that he has got away with this and want advice on what if anything I can still do.

Talk to the police, non-urgent number. If he’s doing it to a lot of people, they might be very interested. You never know, worth a try.

What's the total value you're out of pocket @Anonclutterissue ? You may have to chalk it up to a lesson you paid to learn.

I don't think there's anything you can do. You have no evidence he actually took these things or evidence to suggest if he did you didn't want them taking.

I think unfortunately this is just going to have to be a lesson in making sure you supervise more thoroughly or clearly set out the items that need removing if you organise someone to do a similar job in future.

Weren’t you supervising him? It’s hard to imagine how he could go round collecting things from shelves without you being aware.

I would call the police. People will tell you there is ‘no evidence’ but if you can prove you owned the items and they went missing around the time he was in your house (assuming also you didn’t have lots of other people in the house at the same time) they should open an investigation.

It was from a large walk in cupboard in my house and all the stuff I wanted him taking was in that cupboard on the floor I didn’t want him taking anything from the shelves

If you made that very clear to him then he stole from you and you should inform the police. At the very least this may put him on the police’s radar and prevent him from ever doing it again

If you can't prove what was agreed between you, I don't think you'll get very far. It's his word against yours and the burden of proof lies with you.

Have you contacted him asking about the items of the shelf and if so what was his response?

He is ignoring me

I think it’s worth repeating that proof of evidence can be verbal and lots of criminal cases are determined by one person’s word against another. It’s then a case of who is the more credible witness. Say for example the OP immediately complained to the man he had taken her things, that is a form of evidence.

One person’s word against another’s is not evidence.

Yes it is. Whether it’s decisive or not is another matter.

Most likely to be decisive on the accused’s side, as there is no actual evidence to say he’s lying when he denies the theft.
An accusation is not evidence of the event happening.

That is not true.
You are confused about what is evidence and what is proof.
oral witness accounts are evidence. There is absolutely nothing in law to say that an uncorroborated account cannot be either used in evidence or sufficient to achieve a conviction. A huge number of sexual offences are prosecuted on the basis of one account against another person’s account. Taking all the facts into account the person or persons who have to decide on the case decide which account they prefer.
I see this misunderstanding on social media all the time, possibly thanks to tv crime dramas.

I should also add that on your logic @KilkennyCats a denial is also not evidence of the evident not happening.

I’m just going to leave it because I don’t want trouble for reporting him

Contact Trading Standards. It is important that people are protected and this rogue trader is brought to justice.

I would check places like ebay/vinted to see if your stolen items are on there, and who is selling them.