Shoplifting charge in UK store

[Amanda2021]

Hi,
I had faced bad experience recently and got store ban.
Security guard was rude and not giving chance to pay the item and called police. Police has taken the details like name, dob and address and discuss with store manager. After discussion, Police told that you are ban to come to this store branch and you will get store ban letter. Police or store have not taken any signature from me on any document. They told verbally and said if I go there again then store will ask you to leave or may call police.

Not received any letter yet. Now, I am applying for Visa as a dependent so do i need to declare this incident in Visa application form? Will it impact my visa approval as I need to apply my visa extension immediately? Do police also send store ban letter? If I do not declare then what are the consequence?

Will my information be there in police national database? So i mention this incident in application form or not?

Thank you

A.

[Jackson2004]

You have put yourself in a bit of a predicament. You are lucky that you didn’t walk away with a criminal record which would have almost certainly impacted your immigration status. Whilst everyone can make mistakes and there is no reason to speculate what led up to this, as an I immigrant you have to demonstrate a perfect character and judgement. Something that most people fail to live up to. This is something you have failed to do.

It is quite possible that this information is on the PNC database but it may simply be on a local police file. Whether it shows up on an immigration check would be a matter of speculation. Whether you have to declare it would depend on the exact question on the immigration application. By the sounds of things you have not been convicted of an offence and there should be a presumption of innocence so I would expect you may not have to declare it, but the burden of proof may be lesser when it comes to an immigration application. If you fail to declare this information when the question specifically asks if you have been involved in such an incident then this could have serious consequences for your immigration status. Your application could be denied and you could be banned from applying again. If you do not tell the truth you might get lucky but it could easily backfire.

If there is any doubt as to the exact question on the application form and how you should respond you should seek legal advice. If you did have to declare such an incident then it is probably best not to admit anything in the wording unless you have received a formal caution or conviction.

[Amanda2021]

Thanks you very much for your response. I was not in right mental state. bad phase of my life. I have no question to declare about incident in my application form. I had received recovery Letter for security cost from store which i paid. Do you think that police can create my record in PNC with out even informing me? I believe , police will take note of incident and keep it in local police record as i had discussed with solicitor.

I have not received formal police caution, warning and penalty.