Disciplinary For 'theft' From Employer. Advice Please!

[Watchingg]

I served a customer in my workplace, she left the shop and had forgotten one of her items. It was a relatively small value, around £3. I set it aside should she return, 7 hours later she had still not returned so I decided to bring said item home with me.
Another few hours later, the customer returned to the store asking if she left her item behind that morning. The member of staff on duty viewed CCTV footage of earlier that day and saw me bring her item home with me. He gave her a replacement. Now I have been accused of theft from my employer. I have been suspended on full pay pending a disciplinary hearing next week.
My questions are
1: As the item had been paid for, how can this be theft from my employer? Surely it would be theft-by-find from the customer, and up to her to report it to the police? The store wern't obliged to give her a replacement item, and therfore the loss incurred was as an act of goodwill and not theft.
2: I'm unsure as to the legality of the CCTV footage usage, can I simply deny leaving the store with the item? The footage shows me putting item in to a carrier bag branded with our store logo, and then walking out to the back office. For all they know I could have left the item there.
3: I refused to sign the investigation notes, of the initial meeting in which I admitted to keeping the item. Can this work in my favour? Could I now simply deny taking the item? Naieve that question may sound but law is law and I don't know much about it! Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm on my first day of suspension today and already colleagues are messaging me with support. It's a silly thing to loose a job over, and aside from this error of judgement, I'm a very very good employee.

[Watchingg]

I have taken the advice and I am going to have to hear out the disciplinary hearing next week. I may submit a grievance, but if I do, I think that it will probably spell the end of my job! That's the spot I'm in. Had I handed in my grievance two days ago I might have been in a different scenario, however I was told, off the record, not to. And now I face the prospect of getting the chop. I'm not disputing that I stole a packet of cigarettes, but the sence of fair play in this company is so low, I do not feel I am able to have a fair hearing.

[ukanonymous]

sortry but may I ask what the item was please?

[DJHawkes]

you did not say it was cigarettes, they are a vulnerable product anyway, surely you didn't think you could take cigs, even ones someone else had paid for? Do you smoke?

[Watchingg]

I actually still have the cigarettes. But yes, the item is irrelevent would you not agree? The only reason I didn't specify the item was because I would not like to identify myself

[DJHawkes]

I am assuming that in your store cigs are classed as vulnerable to staff theft, they are not stored anywhere but in locked locations to avoid this, the fact that you chose to take the cigs will ring huge alarm bells and they will no doubt have done a stock check immediately and any shrink will bring you under further suspicion, be aware of that.

[Watchingg]

We have zero losses on cigarettes, and they are not stored securely.

[DJHawkes]

you mean the gantry is left open 24/7 and the overstocks are left on an open shelf in the stock room area?

[Watchingg]

CCTV sees all!

[VHG]

>>>As the item had been paid for, how can this be theft from my employer?

Same thing happened to me once.

I used to work in a car showroom that sold Rolls Royce cars.

One customer bought one and forgot to take it home, so I took it home instead.

And they had the nerve to sack me.

I don't think you have a leg to stand on.

[DJHawkes]

anyway besides that, why is there not a routine stop and search policy? had you had an exit search and no receipt for the cigs you would have been hauled back in at that pont, your company sounds like a right poor place to work, there is no deterent to theive ad it leaves other employees in an exposed position when you can walk out with other peoples property and not have a stop and search.

[DJHawkes]

now you are having a laugh watchingg, cctv lol leave it out

[DJHawkes]

my conclusion is that you do not know sufficient about the operations at your store, you are not familiar with the loss prevention methods and you have committed this theft through blissful ignorance.

[woofgang]

apologies dottie...."cutting edge" it shall be.
I am giving up on this thread now...OP is doing "la la la not listening, not my fault poor me" which is boring. Take the advice, don't take the advice.....

[DJHawkes]

me too woof, retail is not how they are describing it at all, maybe they are a summer temp off from uni

[woofgang]

This also smells of one of those psychological scenario things to see at what point people decide that theft is ok......

[DJHawkes]

if this was a '£3' packet of cigarettes, then it is a cheap 10 pack, though even the cheap ones are nearer £4, a pack of 10 cigs does not need a bag, and if someone wanted to take them into the back of the store they would easily fit into the palm of the hand and no cctv would be able to identify them. it's unrealistic.

[humbersloop]

first post, now "user inactive"

[woofgang]

"user rumbled and stomped off" would be nearer the truth

[EDDIE51]

Once the item was paid for it became the property of the buyer so you stole it from him / her not from the shop.
I would tell them at the hearing that you took it home but intended to bring it back the next day to hand over the next time you served that customer.
On the same theme I knew a person who was sacked for theft (gross misconduct) the offence was to charge her mobile phone while she was working, they said it was theft of company electricity.

[woofgang]

Eddie I myself disciplined an employee for persistent lateness. We had a fire safety register which everyone had to sign on entering the building and because she had falsified the time of sign in, the offence was fraud as she was stealing time from the company and using deceit to hide the fact.