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Original poster

to think convicting this woman of theft is really harsh?

83 replies

IsabelleSE19 · 01/03/2017 13:36

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-39119990

It seems like a real waste of police/court time to bring this case – surely a warning would have sufficed?

I've lost £20 before but would never think of going to the police station to ask if it's been handed in. Equally I've found £20 on a path and kept it (I was so broke that it was like a gift from heaven!). I've also left £40 in a cashpoint which was then taken, but I think that's different as the person potentially taking it could hand it in to the bank and they could check who was using the cashpoint before.

OP posts:
MargaretCavendish · 01/03/2017 16:03

I once, in a fit of conscientousness, handed in what turned out to be my own £20. I saw it on the floor of a changing room and gave it to a shop employee, explaining where I'd found it in case anyone came asking for it. About half an hour later I realised it was the £20 that a friend had given me (because they owed me it) the night before, which I'd stuffed into my jeans pocket and which had obviously fallen out as I was getting undressed. I decided there was no chance they'd believe me if I went back and it would all be too embarrasing, but I was a student at the time so I very, very much mourned that £20...

Megatherium · 01/03/2017 16:06

There is no "Finders Keepers" law in the UK. If you take someone else' property with the intention of permanently depriving them, it's theft, and you really don't have any entitlement to whinge if you get convicted of theft. People who suggest it's ridiculous - where is your personal cut-off point? If you'd keep £20, would you keep £100, £1000, £10,000? If you found a diamond ring, would you reckon you were entitled to keep it?

It's not as if it's that difficult to phone the police, tell them you've got it and where you found it, and maybe offer to drop it in next time you're near a police station.

Megatherium · 01/03/2017 16:07

Have they got nothing better to worry about ie Murders Rapes burglaries ect ect

Don't you think the police should bother about theft at all, then, Awwlook? Will you feel the same if someone steals money from you that you desperately need?

VeryBitchyRestingFace · 01/03/2017 16:14

People who suggest it's ridiculous - where is your personal cut-off point? If you'd keep £20, would you keep £100, £1000, £10,000?

So we should all be calling our local police stations to report every 5p found in the street?

Personal cut off points and all that...

TheOnlyLivingBoyinNewCork · 01/03/2017 16:18

Bitchy have you read the thread? Because you clearly haven't understood any of it if you did.

VeryBitchyRestingFace · 01/03/2017 16:21

Bitchy have you read the thread? Because you clearly haven't understood any of it if you did

Yes. I know that the case referred to in the OP is different. I can well understand why she was prosecuted, even if I feel it was a little heavy handed.

BarbarianMum · 01/03/2017 16:22

Some friends of mine were assaulted last weekend and had their car trashed - this happened in broad daylight when they happened a guy tearing round the local park on a quad bike. So far the police have issued them with an incident number - they didn't send a response vehicle out and they are yet to interview them.Angry

So yes I will hand money in if found in a building, or in the street if a large amount or in a purse but yes they do have better things to do then deal with every random fiver.

TheOnlyLivingBoyinNewCork · 01/03/2017 16:27

Sorry Bitchy that was rude of me, I didn't mean it to be.

Sundance01 · 01/03/2017 16:38

I suspect the amount of tax payers money wasted in pursuing this prosecution and paying this girls benefits when she loses her job and finds it difficult too get another will come to far far more than £20.

What would have happened to the £20 if she had handed it in? Few people would bother reporting it so what would have happened to the money? The police keep it, the shop, it would be burnt.....how is that not equally theft.

The vast majority of people would keep the money under these circumstances.

My suspicon is she some how pissed off the police officer so they decided to pursue it.

I have felt for a long time whether you get prosecuted and convicted for a crime depends far more on how much the police on the ground want to prosecute you than what you have actually done.

This case further deepens my suspicion.

TheOnlyLivingBoyinNewCork · 01/03/2017 16:42

What would have happened to the £20 if she had handed it in?

The dude who lost it would have got it back when he asked for it at the till not 5 minutes later.

The vast majority of people would keep the money under these circumstances

They really wouldn't. Lost money in the street, no. But this wasn't that.

I have felt for a long time whether you get prosecuted and convicted for a crime depends far more on how much the police on the ground want to prosecute you than what you have actually done

Wrong again. It's not the police that decide who is prosecuted and who isn't. They will have decided to charge her because she actually committed a crime, it was caught on camera, and she lied about it so she was aware of her guilt. She also has previous convictions.

Serialweightwatcher · 01/03/2017 16:50

I think it's extremely harsh - if she'd handed it in and nobody would have come to claim it, who would get it?

Rhayader · 01/03/2017 16:53

I saw a £20 note on a quiet pavement, there was a woman in her 70/80s walking in front of me and i shouted to her to say she had dropped it. It was a crisp note so i assumed recently dropped (in retrospect I'm not sure why). She denied all knowledge of it but offered to split it 😂

Feels weird that i could be a convicted criminal because of that.

MongerTruffle · 01/03/2017 16:55

The cash machine scenario is different. You should just leave it - the machine will suck it back in and after a few days the bank can recredit it to whoever's account.

S1lentAllTheseYears · 01/03/2017 16:59

What would have happened to the £20 if she had handed it in?

Sundance0 I found £10 on the floor by the till at M&S and gave it to the cashier who called someone from customer services who had me fill a form in (I was wishing I'd just left it on the floor by this point tbh!)

About three weeks later, I got a call to say no one had claimed it so it was legally mine and I collected it the next time I was in there so honesty paid off on that occasion.

As for the woman in the article. I think she should have handed it in as she was in a shop so it would be fairly likely someone would realise where they lost it and return to ask. I do think a caution would have been enough though, although we don't know the time frame between the person dropping it and her taking it - perhpas she saw and knew full well who had dropped it but chose to grab it anyway.

TheOnlyLivingBoyinNewCork · 01/03/2017 16:59

Feels weird that i could be a convicted criminal because of that

You wouldn't be.

You know when you see ac article like this and think "its ridiculous that that thing would happen the way the paper says it has", you can guarantee that it didn't, and there is a good bit more to it.

Nobody ever went to court for finding a 5£ blowing in the wind!

jay55 · 01/03/2017 17:03

We have threads on here where people known to the police as thieves are selling stolen goods on Facebook and the police won't attend. But they will for £20 that was picked up through opportunity not planning and there is a prosecution.

Utter waste of time and money.

OneFlewOverTheDodosNest · 01/03/2017 17:18

A friend and I found hundreds in an envelope once and handed it in as it was obviously a small business's weekly takings. I also handed in a purse at a library and when the person went to collect it all the money had mysteriously vanished - really changed my mind about librarians!

HRHCocoa · 01/03/2017 17:22

A few years back I called the police because someone (drunk or on drugs) shot at me with an airgun while I was walking my dogs in a public park. (This was int the UK- near Windsor in fact).

I called the police and the woman said 'We don't have any units in the area right now. Can we contact you on this number if we need to?'

Heard fuck all.

There simply must be more to this story than we are hearing,.... at least I hope so.

Original poster
IsabelleSE19 · 01/03/2017 17:22

OneFlewOverTheDodosNest

That's terrible! Shock

OP posts:
HRHCocoa · 01/03/2017 17:23

*this was in the UK I mean...fat fingers made my typing a bit dodgy.

ArcheryAnnie · 01/03/2017 17:41

The thing that pisses me off is that there was a senior policeman on Radio 4 yesterday morning who was seriously advocating not prosecuting men who funded child abuse by buying and viewing "child pr0n" (ie child rape), because the police were "so overstretched".

If we need to ration police attention amongst criminals, I think I'd rather have them going after child abusers than someone who stole £20.

HRHCocoa · 01/03/2017 17:41

Archery I am in full agreement.

MoonriseKingdom · 01/03/2017 17:47

When I was a poor student I opened a savings account with a £10 cheque. When I got my statement (3 months later) there was a £500 cheque deposited at the same time. I immediately phoned up and told them. Lots of people thought I was crazy at the time but if I'd spent it I think it could have been considered theft. The bank were very grateful and sent me supermarket vouchers as a thank you.

I do wonder at the public interest in prosecuting this though unless there is more than was reported.

terrylene · 01/03/2017 18:00

The cash machine scenario is different. You should just leave it - the machine will suck it back in and after a few days the bank can recredit it to whoever's account.

That is an improvement - in 1990, it just spat it out into a bit where you lifted the flap - I lifted the flap to await my money and there was £40 already there - no way of sucking it back up. There was no way of tracing it back to the person either, so the bank would have just had to find a way for accounting for the extra £40 at the end of the day - I probably gave them a headache Wink

terrylene · 01/03/2017 18:02

Archery I do agree there - there are so many things that the police do not prosecute for these days unless they are doing a crack-down, even when they have the evidence. Like the stolen pushchair thread a while back.

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