Father and son who 'forgot to pay' for Fortnum & Mason champagne in rush to leave store cleared of theft

A father and son have been cleared of stealing champagne from Fortnum & Mason after the younger man told a court he was rushing to complete a JP Morgan job application. 

Douglas Vallender, 52, and Jack Vallender, 18, were alleged to have swiped champagne from the famous Piccadilly department store in London's West End on 1 May 2017.

The Cornwall based businessman and his son walked out with the bottles of bubbly worth £348 without paying. The jury returned unanimous not guilty verdicts for the pair after just 48 minutes of deliberations.

It was claimed they entered the upmarket store at about 12.15pm and between them smuggled out the box of champers before being stopped in the street.

Prosecutor James Cartwright said that it was a "thought out and planned theft" but the Vallenders insisted they had simply forgotten to pay.

Jack told Southwark Crown Court that he was in a rush to fill out an application for an internship with banking giant JP Morgan.

He said: "By sheer accident we walked out the store and we forgot to pay."

Referring to his son, Douglas Vallender said: "He was getting in a bit of a flap and I said, "okay, okay," and we walked straight out of the shop, never batted an eyelid and all the rest of it."

Jack, who lived in Stroud in Gloucestershire with his mother at the time and attended Marling Grammer School, said: "JP Morgan is one of the top firms for investment banking. If I could get my foot in the door, that would really help me.

"If I could get that internship, that would be massive - it was the one thing I wanted to do. I was worried about not having enough time to do the application."

Jack Vallender

David Campbell, defending Douglas Vallender, told jurors that the pair admitted walking out of the shop with the bottles but they simply "made a mistake". 'The fact is that they are human,' Mr Campbell said.

Addressing the jury, judge Michael Howard QC said: 'You have come to your verdict extremely quickly.

'Both of them are, of course, entitled to be released immediately.'

Speaking outside the courtroom, Douglas Vallender said: "We are very grateful that the correct decision was reached and can't thank our legal team enough. It has caused a lot of hurt and upset to the family."

Asked if Fortnum & Mason should apologise, Douglas Vallender said: 'I think they should, it's because of them that this has come about.'

A tearful Jack told reporters: 'I used to love coming to London but now it seems like the only reason I have come up really is because of this. People see it and they just assume the worst."

Douglas Vallender owns Valle Construction and Valdon Developments based in St Ives, Cornwall and also owns two coffee companies, Kwick.Coffee and Exspesso (corr).

Douglas and Jack Vallender, of St Ives, Cornwall were each cleared of one count of theft.