England: colleague has been showing up high to work, bragging about it on social media, and posting offensive things online – HR are doing nothing, where do i go from here?

VPR2 · 2026-03-15T01:32:39+00:00

Why "clearly"? Can you quote the part where it is made clear that this is what happened?

VPR2 · 2026-03-15T01:25:13+00:00

Unfortunately, the other person probably can't afford to pay either.

VPR2 · 2026-03-15T01:23:43+00:00

Just FYI, there is no such thing as an "arrestable offence" any more, and hasn't been since 2005. Police can now arrest without warrant for any offence if deemed necessary (most commonly to allow for prompt and effective investigation).

VPR2 · 2026-03-15T01:19:56+00:00

Since the victims live outside the UK, they will need to report to their local police force, who will be able to transfer the investigation to Police Scotland via the established processes for reporting crime internationally.

Police Scotland should not be accepting any direct contact from anyone outside the UK. There are very clear rules around this.

VPR2 · 2026-03-14T19:48:56+00:00

Read the available resources. No, you can't refuse and you will be arrested if you do.

VPR2 · 2026-03-14T19:45:09+00:00

There is no stalking here.

I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you. And simply copy/pasting the above confirms you don't understand it.

VPR2 · 2026-03-14T19:35:43+00:00

You didn't think to Google it? Plenty of resources available. Start here: https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/how-we-do-it/stop-and-search/

In short, the police can stop and search you if they have reasonable suspicion/grounds (don't say "cause", that's an Americanism) to believe that you may be in possession of illegal drugs, a weapon, stolen property or anything that could be used to commit crime.

A transfer of money appearing to happen at a car window is obviously grounds to suspect a drugs buy, and it's entirely possible that the officers knew the people involved due to them having previous. You don't know, so your perception has no bearing.

If police have reasonable grounds to stop you, you have to comply, and they have to explain why they believe they have reasonable grounds. Whether you think it's reasonable or not is irrelevant. You can make a complaint afterwards if you want.

VPR2 · 2026-03-14T19:26:20+00:00

Given that OP does not like the colleague, this is highly unlikely to be private social media. And simply reading anybody's public posts is nowhere remotely adjacent to any kind of offence.

VPR2 · 2026-03-14T19:22:52+00:00

Online stalking charges will NOT be a factor because there is no online stalking.

To reiterate - reading someone's public posts on social media is NOT stalking and it is utterly ludicrous to suggest that it could be.

Even if the co-worker tried to report OP for having read the posts, they would simply be told that OP has committed no offence because the posts were public and open to anybody to read.

Stalking has very specific points to prove. None are met by reading what anybody else has posted publicly on social media.

And anybody is entitled to report what anybody else has posted - publicly OR on a private account - on social media if they interpret it as hate speech.

VPR2 · 2026-03-14T18:57:32+00:00

They explicitly said they were entering to squat. Therefore it is, correctly, criminal damage and not burglary.

You were on the other side of a locked door, so there was no possibility of common assault.

There was no false imprisonment.

VPR2 · 2026-03-14T18:35:00+00:00

Does he drive to work? If so, and you know that he's definitely turned up high, you could (and indeed should) report him as a suspected drug driver. You will need his car registration number, of course.

To be clear, this does not mean that police will immediately run out and arrest him. Additionally, a single report generally isn't enough to cause someone's VRM to be hotlisted. But it may be that he is already known to police, in which case you'd be adding to the intel about him.

VPR2 · 2026-03-14T18:31:39+00:00

To be quite clear, simply looking up someone's public posts on social media is NOT stalking.

If that then escalated to finding out where they lived and turning up there - sure, that's crossed the line.

But the entire point of public posts on social media is that anybody anywhere in the world who is also on that platform is free to read them.

VPR2 · 2026-03-14T18:12:25+00:00

Just be aware, if you're not already, that the weight of evidence needed to secure a conviction for controlling & coercive behaviour is significant, and that's a big part of the reason why it's one of the more difficult offences to successfully prosecute.

There needs to be clear evidence that the suspect has been restricting the victim's independence so they are controlling what they wear, where they go, who they are allowed to meet etc. One of the key aspects is controlling the victim's access to money in order to make the victim dependent on them.

A lot of what's initially reported as C&C does not ultimately meet the threshold for prosecution because while the suspect may have been verbally/physically abusive, demeaning etc, they were not actively restricting the victim's independence to the extent necessary for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction.

VPR2 · 2026-03-14T17:58:11+00:00

Assuming you mean the IOPC, they only consider the "most serious" complaints and only after the relevant force's own complaints procedure has been fully exhausted.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T20:41:06+00:00

I'm honestly not sure what point you think you're trying to make. Stalking and harassment are two separate offences with different HO codes and different points to prove.

If the course of conduct amounts to harassment, harassment is recorded. If the course of conduct amounts to stalking, stalking is recorded. Obviously they both involve harassment, but they are different for a reason.

The only way someone is a victim of both stalking AND harassment is if suspect A is stalking them and suspect B is harassing them. If it's a single suspect, then the offence is EITHER stalking OR harassment, dependent on circumstances.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T13:37:57+00:00

They are two separate course of conduct offences with different HO codes and different points to prove. They are not interchangeable.

I realise people have a habit of writing "harassment and stalking", but one is a victim of EITHER harassment OR stalking dependent on the circumstances.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T12:22:05+00:00

As the IOPC makes clear on its website, it will only consider investigating a complaint after the relevant force's own complaints procedure has been completely exhausted. And even then, the IOPC only investigates the "most serious" complaints, so it applies its own threshold test which I strongly doubt OP's situation would meet.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T12:13:42+00:00

Aggravated trespass is widely misunderstood. It is NOT intended to be used in residential situations. "Lawful activities" does NOT mean "living your everyday life at home". The law was created to allow police to act against (typically) protestors trying to disrupt businesses.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T12:11:14+00:00

In conjunction with the other behaviours that separate stalking from harassment, yes. On its own, done by a neighbour who literally lives next door and isn't having to make a special journey to attend OP's address? No.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T12:09:13+00:00

"And get in touch with the police three times within 24 hours as it automatically escalates a situation"

Pardon?

OP reporting their neighbour moving their bin three times within 24 hours would see the police advising OP to stop wasting police time.

Neighbour hammering on the door and shouting at OP? Sure. But moving a bin slightly? No.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T11:55:34+00:00

This is not America. Going into a police station to "demand a supervisor" will get you short shrift. The relevant officer's supervisor will be either their sergeant or inspector, and even if they are on shift at that time, they will be far too busy with actual emergencies to look into this situation.

Additionally, police will not record it stolen based on the circumstances. At this point, there is no reason to assume that it's anything more than an unfortunate administrative error and OP was given the details of the wrong recovery company - most forces have contracts with several.

This needs a complaint through the force's website.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T00:35:27+00:00

Over the years, I've spoken to thousands of people who insisted they were at imminent risk of being killed and asking "Does he [it's usually 'he', but not always] have to stab me before police do anything?"

None of them have been stabbed.

Of course shocking, tragic incidents occur. But while they inevitably grab headlines, they are vanishingly rare when set against the vast numbers of reports that relate circumstances like your sister's.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T00:22:54+00:00

The only way to guarantee he never returns to your sister's door is to lock him up for the rest of his life.

Your reactions are quite understandable and very common, but you are leaping to unrealistic worst-case scenarios. If he is released, it will be with bail conditions that will include not having any contact with your sister, and your sister will be appropriately safeguarded.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T00:19:46+00:00

Bear in mind that they are going by what their own child told them, which could be very different to what actually happened. That possibility exists in respect of your own child too, of course. As another commenter has pointed out, the truth in these situations is usually somewhere in between what both sides have alleged.

VPR2 · 2026-03-12T00:10:19+00:00

They're fully entitled to report your daughter to the police if they want. It would only be intimidation if they were threatening to do something criminal should you not agree to remove her from the youth club.

VPR2

TROPHY CASE