"I am a female who has recently graduated university reading law. I am hoping to do some work experience and become a trainee solicitor in London.
"However, just over a year ago I was working in a cocktail bar when, out of the blue, I was accused of stealing around £700 from the tills. After being humiliated in front of the bar owner and managers, having to empty pockets and my bag, nothing was found. I was told the police would be contacted and CCTV reviewed and was more than supportive of this. Two weeks later, I had heard nothing, and after being told by the owner to not worry about it, I assumed a till fault had been discovered and I was no longer a suspect. Due to these beliefs I have been placing the owner on my CV for the past year.
"However, I recently was told by a friend who now works at the same bar that he had been told by the owner that they did in fact believe that I had stolen the £700 and 'spent it on clothes'. Should I leave the issue or explore a defamation claim before I go ahead and apply to prospective law firms? Is it possible that an issue such as this may arise in the future and ruin my reputation?"
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I am not a libel lawyer, so am unable to advise you on the merits of any potential claim. But I am amazed that you included the bar owner as a referee. Surely the sensible thing to do is to change referee.
Were the police ever involved? If they were, it is possible that the allegation could appear on a Criminal Records Bureau check - even though you were neither convicted nor cautioned. Despite not having come to anything, if you, say, wanted to work with kids (eg if you have kids in future and want to go on their school trips) you would have to apply for enhanced disclosure. Unfortunately the Solicitors Regulation Authority will do a Criminal Records Bureau check before you qualify as a solicitor and you can't get your own CRB check to see what's there - which is disgraceful - not even under the Data Protection Act.
I think you should find out what the owner is saying, ask if the police were ever involved, and a solicitor's letter regarding defamation may not go amiss. Unfortunately, these types of allegations can come back to bite you later (I know it's not what you want to hear) and you need to make sure your record is clear.
You could use the £700 on a libel lawyer?! Just joking. No criminal record, no worry. But I would change your referee. Do some unpaid work at a firm and have them on your CV.
Poor you! I definitely think you should (a) see if your mate can find out whether they went to the police and (b) after that, speak to a solicitor about sending the bar owner a pretty robust letter demanding that he stops making these remarks about you, and if possible getting the bar owner to apologise/confirm in writing that there was no proved foundation to his allegations. If it is a chain, it may be that writing to a manager higher up the food chain might be more effective. Also, change your referee and be upfront about it at the appropriate moment: firms are unlikely to do checks before the interview stage or indeed before qualification: you could always go for the bold approach and use it as an example of 'experience' of dealing with a difficult situation. Whatever you do, don't lie on any form, ever - not professional and not worth it. Good luck.
You are a law graduate so you should know suspicion, no matter how strong, cannot replace the burden of proof by the accuser in a criminal trial. A clear conscience needs not fear any accusation. Your interviewers will be experienced lawyers and therefore are able to put the proper weight on this accusation if it ever comes up. If, however, you really stole the money, let the anxiety you have gone through over this issue be enough punishment for you. Ask god for forgiveness and remain assured your career prospect is as bright as the promises of god who in any event has the final say.
Don't you only have 12 months to pursue a libel claim? Check limitation before spending any money.
A solicitor's letter might still be helpful even if the limitation period has run out. I doubt the bar owner will know that bit of legal trivia.
Simple solution - take them off your CV.
I agree - definitely take the bar owner off as referee. Also, although you can't get a CRB check yourself as stated above, you can get a printout of the information held about you on the police national computer which will pretty much tell you what you want to know. If you are really worried, I would do this - it doesn't cost much and will set your mind at rest. If nothing is on there then you don't need to take any action. Re the defamation claim, I would forget it and put it down to a bad experience. It's not worth wasting your time on.
From my experience, once you have a decent bit of legal work experience on your CV then you can basically drop most non-law related work experience (except if particularly impressive e.g. internship at an invesment bank or something). Putting down that you worked in a bar will not get you any extra brownie points anyway, and if you do put it down, definitely remove all contact details of the bar - no one is going to go phoning up bars to see if you worked there. The HR people have better things to do!
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