…from a bin.
Three accused of stealing food from Iceland store bins
Three men are to stand trial after allegedly taking cheese, tomatoes and cakes from bins behind an Iceland shop.
This was stuff that the shop had thrown out. Stuff that has just gone past its best before date. It has been something practiced by those in the know for quite a while, and is known as ‘skipping’.
Interestingly it is not Iceland who is prosecuting them either, but the Crown Prosecution Service has taken it upon itself to declare that this case should proceed since it is the public’s interest; it is happy to waste taxpayers money on prosecuting three men who – essentially – rummage in bins. Ok, they were detained with £33 worth of goods, but this was cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms and Mr Kipling cakes that had been consigned to landfill or burning – who were they depriving?
I have not gone skipping, but I regularly chase around supermarkets at 9pm for reduced items. It can be very worthwhile: £12 cakes for 50p, 1kg of Tesco finest rump steak from £22 down to £1.25, whole roast chickens straight off the rotisserie for 50p, loads of those Xmas waxed cheese truckles for 10p, bread rolls at 5p for six (freshly baked that afternoon, too), that sort of thing. All the big stores do it, lots of the smaller ones too. A good evening can lets us spend about £5 for one weeks worth of meat, poultry and veg. Even had an argument with a store duty manager who had staff taking full priced but short dated goods out of the chillers to go in bins for, he said, pigs to eat, rather than reduce the price and sell it; food from supermarkets is not permitted to be used for pig food anymore… I am not alone in doing this when I go shopping – there are several others who I meet at the various stores; one drives a care home minibus and regularly loads up his trolley with yogurts and bread, another apparently assists with feeding the homeless and needy.
My feelings are that at least the food is being eaten (hopefully) rather than being thrown away. And now it appears that if you go one stage further along the process, ie to the bins, you can be nicked for theft.
Must be a lot of landfill that they’ve got to fill in…
By: TwinOtter23 - 30th January 2014 at 18:38
WADR the person I ‘encountered’ was down in the skip rummaging through what was already inside, where I didn’t see him and he was very lucky to escape injury!
This was an open top skip and I was levering in long pieces of heavy MDF structure from a distance away. If it had hit him he would have been badly injured.
After the incident the skip was changed to a design with self-closing lids, which you had to open before you could use it – hence giving you the chance to see inside.
Out of interest if you ever go to Newark Air Museum look in Lancaster Corner and you’ll see some of the similar panels that we donated to NAM by the company.
(Compiled as your post was being edited!)
By: Mr Merry - 30th January 2014 at 18:27
Just a thought – about twenty years ago I nearly killed someone when I threw some large pieces of exhibition stand framework into a skip at the company where I worked in Nottingham.
Someone was inside the skip illegally rummaging for scrap metal and I didn’t see them! The incident caused the company to request a different style of skip, to stop the chance of something similar happening again.
Frightened the life out of me and I bet it did the same to ‘skippy!’
It can happen. Get into a skip and it’s not safe. Rather than starve I would get in one.
By: Mr Merry - 30th January 2014 at 18:24
‘European Legislation so like it or not it’s here to stay.’
It is, common sense out of window yet again.
By: TwinOtter23 - 30th January 2014 at 18:21
Just a thought – about twenty years ago I nearly killed someone when I threw some large pieces of exhibition stand framework into a skip at the company where I worked in Nottingham.
Someone was inside the skip illegally rummaging for scrap metal and I didn’t see them! The incident caused the company to request a different style of skip, to stop the chance of something similar happening again.
Frightened the life out of me and I bet it did the same to ‘skippy!’
By: charliehunt - 30th January 2014 at 18:20
Quite so. What began with M&S trying to offer advice to the consumer in the fifties is now mandated by European Legislation so like it or not it’s here to stay.
By: Mr Merry - 30th January 2014 at 18:06
Obviously the CPS looked at all the bad publicity and had second thoughts…
The Met are still left looking silly though.
Iceland also didn’t want the bad publicity either.
But to me the issue is way so much food is thrown away?
Use by dates aren’t realistic, if it’s not mouldy and doesn’t smell it’s fine to eat.
Even if is mouldy I cut off mouldy bits, it’s fine underneath.
By: snafu - 30th January 2014 at 08:57
Ok, as you were. The case was dropped:
Baljit Ubhey, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This case has been reviewed by a senior lawyer and it has been decided that a prosecution is not required in the public interest.
“While the decision to charge was taken by the Metropolitan Police Service, a subsequent review of the case by the CPS did not give due weight to the public interest factors tending against prosecution.”
The Met said it would not comment on the CPS’s decision to drop the case.
Obviously the CPS looked at all the bad publicity and had second thoughts…
The Met are still left looking silly though.
By: Mr Merry - 29th January 2014 at 20:32
As an after thought how can goods be worth £33 if they are in a bin?
Fair play to Iceland who have said that’s it’s nothing to do with them.
By: Mr Merry - 29th January 2014 at 20:28
Sorry, I missed this thread. I did reply on another one.
“Ah the CPS at it again,
The ones that thought it a good idea to do 3 guys because they took some food from a bin.
They have now (the CPS) have dropped the case.”
A link to the case http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25950761
By: charliehunt - 29th January 2014 at 16:58
I reckon JBRichford is right. I see they have been charged under section 4 of the Vagrancy Act 1824!!
By: snafu - 29th January 2014 at 16:56
The food would not be loose, but packaged. (Loose cheese, in Iceland, in this day and age? In fact none of that food would have been on sale loose – this is Iceland we are talking about!)
The food would have been on sale until closing time. If it is likely to make anyone taking it from the bin ill then the food was bad whilst still on sale. Also the food is good for at least several days past the best before date, even without being irradiated, since the supermarkets are usually just covering themselves from the moaners (who wants to purchase an apple that goes rotten in the fruit bowl the day after you bought it?).
Anyone who goes bin diving, I suspect, knows what to look for and could hardly blame the supermarket for any problems; if someone at the shop were to poison the food to teach the skippers a lesson (as I heard on the radio this morning) they would be up for potential manslaughter charges, for knowing that the food might still go on for possible consumption.
By: charliehunt - 29th January 2014 at 16:32
More than likely. Supermarket gets sued by someone having eaten discarded food from a bin! I can see the headlines now and no doubt the supermarket would lose the case!!!
By: j_jza80 - 29th January 2014 at 16:31
I lice across the road from a bakery, and I suspect this happens a lot there, as I regularly see cars and vans going round the back out of hours.
While I do think that nearly out of date food could be put to much better use, we should be doing all we can to discourage foraging in bins. In the long run, it will end up costing the NHS, and therefore, us.
By: jbritchford - 29th January 2014 at 16:21
If I recall this is more about preventing an activity where the supermarket might be liable for damages if someone was injured/poisoned as a result of bin diving/eating the spoils, rather than some kind of petty anger that refuse was being taken.
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January 29, 2014 at 3:55 pm