The Solicitors Regulation Authority has warned lawyers not to ‘diminish public trust in the profession’ when acting in civil recovery claims against alleged shoplifters.

The warning arose in response to a report by the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) on the fines levied and tactics used by lawyers and others working on such claims.

In one case, the report claims that a mentally ill woman accused of, but never charged with, stealing balloons worth 60p received a letter from Bradford firm Drydens demanding £150 for ‘security costs’. Drydens told the CAB it was unable to comment on the matter for reasons of client confidentiality.

In another case, the report claims a teenager accused of stealing £1.22 received a letter from Nottingham-based company Retail Loss Prevention (RLP) demanding £663 to cover investigation, management time and administrative costs.

RLP told CAB that the claim was ‘properly maintainable for the costs of investigating [the individual’s] wrongful actions together with a contribution towards our client’s loss-prevention measures’.

The CAB report said that it was entirely proper for retailers to take reasonable steps to reduce shoplifting. However, it said that since there was no clear evidence that the civil courts had consistently supported the ‘recoverability of the sort of sums routinely demanded by RLP and Drydens’ for ‘minor’, ‘low value’ and ‘one-off’ alleged offences for which there has been no criminal conviction, then the issuing of such claims letters constituted ‘deceitful’, ‘unfair’ and ‘improper’ business practice, as defined by guidance on debt collection issued by the Office of Fair Trading.

Civil recovery should not apply to one-off minor offences, CAB said, but only to ‘serious, determined or persistent criminal activity for which there had been a criminal conviction’.

Philip Holden, executive chairman of Drydens, which has issued civil recovery claims on behalf of Asda, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s, said Drydens was aware of the report, but believed it unfairly criticised the firm. ‘We have cooperated with CAB during its writing and welcome calls for regulation of the industry. As a company already regulated by the SRA, we have an open-book policy and our methods and systems are available for scrutiny.’

A spokeswoman for RLP, whose clients include Argos, Iceland, Waitrose and WHSmith, said: ‘We work with law firms in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and [the Republic of Ireland], all of which, like our in-house lawyers, are regulated by their professional bodies. We also work with the police. We obey the spirit and the letter of the law.’

An SRA spokesman said it had ‘noted the issues’ raised in the report and had issued guidance on solicitors’ duties when instructed to seek recovery from shoplifters. He added: ‘Solicitors have a duty not to behave in a way that’s likely to diminish public trust in the profession… or take unfair advantage of anyone.’