Why picking up a lost £20 note could leave you with a criminal record

[Retro]

Finders keepers, right? Not quite.

If you find that hypothetical £20 note in a UK street, you're actually supposed to go around trying to find out who it belongs to. Yes, really. Now, can you imagine going up to some random person and asking them if it's theirs? They're gonna lie and say yes, aren't they? Duh! And you'll be the mug for giving it to them. It's not much different if you hand it in to the police as either some copper will pocket it on the quiet, or it will go to their charity fund. Either way, the original person doesn't get it back.

It's different if you find a wallet with lots of money and some identifying information in it such as a credit card. In that case, I'd hand it into the police and not take any of the money. Similarly with something like a smartphone, since those can be identified.

For most people, finding a £20 banknote lying unclaimed on the ground would be the highlight of their day.

But choosing to pocket cash you find in public is not nearly as innocent an act as you might think – and could see you hauled into court and prosecuted for theft.

That’s what happened to 23-year-old Nicole Bailey of Highfield Drive, Blurton, when she found a £20 note in a convenience store in Stoke-on-Trent in 2017.

Why picking up a lost £20 note could leave you with a criminal record

For most people, finding a £20 banknote lying unclaimed on the ground would be the highlight of their day.

uk.finance.yahoo.com

 

[Tiffany]

The ultimate in polite to try and find out who dropped the £20...your arguments were spot on though about who would really get the money you found though if you were to seek out the owner, however a fine and jail is motivating to make the effort. That's a very strict law.

 

[Mars]

Finders keepers, right? Not quite.

If you find that hypothetical £20 note in a UK street, you're actually supposed to go around trying to find out who it belongs to. Yes, really. Now, can you imagine going up to some random person and asking them if it's theirs? They're gonna lie and say yes, aren't they? Duh! And you'll be the mug for giving it to them. It's not much different if you hand it in to the police as either some copper will pocket it on the quiet, or it will go to their charity fund. Either way, the original person doesn't get it back.

It's different if you find a wallet with lots of money and some identifying information in it such as a credit card. In that case, I'd hand it into the police and not take any of the money. Similarly with something like a smartphone, since those can be identified.

Why picking up a lost £20 note could leave you with a criminal record

For most people, finding a £20 banknote lying unclaimed on the ground would be the highlight of their day.

uk.finance.yahoo.com

That is totally crazy, I just can't believe it; what world do they live in?

I mean: 'do your best to find the owner'....Right kids, I got an idea: next time you find a £20 note on a shop floor: You go to management ask them to announce over the loudspeakers whoever lost £20 note to come to the cashier to claim it....Now just sit back and watch the whole lot rush to the tills to claim the lost note....
I am lucky then, as I have found some tenners, fivers and twenties in my life; I should have grown old in prison by now for all my sins.

As you say, Retro, finding a wallet may be different. I still remember many moons ago, one morning on my way out of Safeway, I find a wallet lying half concealed in the debris, at the foot of the down escalator. Quick as a flash I pick it up, and I am not joking it was bulging! Had a fair few notes in it.
I thought it was my lucky day....until I saw the Freedom Pass... Pensioners....and the Post Office withdrawn cash receipt from that very morning.

Back up we go, ask a cashier to call for a supervisor, handed her the wallet. Her eyes lit up, she tells me to wait, went and came back some minutes later accompanied by a couple; pensioners! For sure, I could see the lady's resemblance to the Freedom Pass photo.
Oh she and her hubby were happy bunnies....and so was I!
Certain things you just can't forget.