to think that the Crown Prosecution Service should have better things to do ..

[bonvivant]

than prosecute people taking unwanted food from a skip?

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/28/three-charged-vagrancy-act-food-skip-iceland

Also agree that their housing status is irrelevant. I think its a case of live and let live. We are not all the same and I am glad that there are those climbing over fences to highlight this BS so that people like me don't have to!

Iceland are coming across very well in all of this.

They are making it clear that they had nothing to do with the arrests, and they don't sound as though they are in favour of the prosecution going ahead either.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25945052

Case dropped

I think I shall show my appreciation by going along to Iceland tomorrow and buying square sausage, and something by Coppenrath & Wiese,

And maybe some Gregg's sausage rolls for the children

I do think dropping it was the decent thing to do, and I'd love to know which jobs worthy lot (from the police station next door) thought it was something worth arresting/prosecuting for in the first place.

Way to improve community relations

Yay!
Very impressed with Malcolm Walker.

Someone up thread said squatting was evil. Can't agree. Perfectly acceptable homes standing empty when there is a housing crisis in a rich country is evil.

Empty homes need to be hammered for tax

I worked for Iceland in the late 80's early 90's as a teenager. We had several homeless people who lived around the areas at the back of the store because it was quite sheltered. At the end of the day we had to do the losses, which was basically noting down the damaged items and then throwing them into a compactor.
Although a lot of the damages were frozen food lots of things like bread, cakes and milk wasn't (didn't really sell sandwiches and the like then). Management were happy for us to box these items up and leave them on the back step for the homeless to take.
Area management were also happy with how we dealt with the waste.

We wont go into the night I decided to chug back a carton of cream before going to the pub though....didn't end well.

So glad Iceland responded as they did. It is a sad world when this is an offence. It was refuse awaiting collection. A victimless crime is right.

With all due respect, I can't respect that view. That's about as polite as I'm going to get.

It's the Crown Prosecution Service not the Private Prosecution Service.

It is not up to Iceland or anyone else to decide what the CPS does. But that's what seems to have happened here.

The CPS act for all of us, not for rich individuals or big business or the views of the prevailing Government.

Maybe the CPS were being vindictive and stupid. Or just maybe someone there wanted to make a point and got leant on.

The point is that it gets tested in court.

Just maybe someone in the CPS was trying to highlight the imbalance between crimes against property versus crimes, or more properly, injustices, against human beings and social justice.

Just maybe the three men were more than willing victims who wanted their day in court.

Just maybe Iceland used their influence to sweep it under the carpet and look great.

Meanwhile, the Government, who don't want a discussion about plummeting standards of living, and those employers who don't want a light shone on their poor practices which have all contributed to the working poor who have to skip dive or rely on food banks, have got off.

Again.

Yay for the little guy.

Pmsl at polite as I am going to get. How condescending

limitedperiodonly I think that once Iceland said that they didn't want the men prosecuted, hadn't called the police and indeed only learnt of the prosecution today, it was very difficult for the CPS to secure a conviction. Theft is not theft if the owner of the goods consents to them being taking them, or even just if the person who took them honestly believed that the owner would consent if they knew the circumstances.

Meanwhile, the Government, who don't want a discussion about plummeting standards of living, and those employers who don't want a light shone on their poor practices which have all contributed to the working poor who have to skip dive or rely on food banks, have got off.

Fair point limited