A retailer has praised the efforts of the NFRN’s legal department over its guidance when they found a shop worker stealing stock on CCTV. 

The retailer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed the worker stole up to £50-worth of stock over a two-week period. “I found out about this when we were submitting CCTV to the police for a separate shoplifting incident,” they said. 

“I saw that the worker had been scanning tobacco, doughnuts and milk through the till in a training mode, which means the products do not get registered by the system.”

The retailer explained that NFRN Legal was able to outline the correct guidelines to follow during the process. “NFRN Legal was absolutely superb,” they said. “The team have helped me before with a couple of incidents that have occurred in the past, but this time around, I needed to rely on them a lot more.

“They talked me through each stage of approaching a discussion with the person in question. They were well informed of my case every time I called, and didn’t need reminding, which I found really helpful.”

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The retailer stressed that others need to ensure they are monitoring their CCTV on a regular basis to prevent issues like this from happening. “It wasn’t until we observed the CCTV footage that we were able to see the methods that were used for stealing stock,” they said. “On our tills, when you put through tobacco, an alert comes up on the screen asking if the person is over the age of 18, if you select ‘no’, then the purchase doesn’t show on the till, which is what was being done. “All of the products were then put into a bag and taken home.”

The retailer went on to reinforce the importance of the service the NFRN offers. “If I didn’t have the opportunity to use a service like this, it would have cost me a lot of money to seek the correct advice,” they said. 

NFRN Legal’s head of sales, Andy Talbot, said: “Legal problems can be stressful for small business owners. The NFRN Legal helpline provides valuable legal advice to members, round the clock, to help them prevent a small legal problem from getting worse, or turning into a full-blown legal dispute. 

“Members can use the service time and again to help keep their business on the right legal track.”