Company making me pay for a POS Machine that I did not damage (England)

Hello,

So a little bit of background. I work for a company doing on-street sales using a POS machine to take card payments. Ive worked for this company part time (1-3 days a week during university time) for about 2 years and a half. We are given machines by what we call supervisors in the morning when we get to the office and all machines have a number. In my time in this company I have been given machines with cracked screens multiple times.

Now just after the Christmas period, around for the first 5 days of January I was given a machine with a cracked screens multiple times and a black spot on the LCD. Obviously me thinking that the supervisor already knew Intook the machine and left. On my way down I saw a colleague who works in the office and asked him ifnit was normal. He said to take a picture of it just incase. I was ina hurry and completely forgot to take a picture (I know stupid mistake. At the end of the day I gave back the machine and told my supervisor that it had a spot on it that they might want to take a look at. He then told me that I shouldve told me in the morning and that now I may have to pay money because “im the one who broke the machine”.

I then went holiday 2-3 days after for 2 weeks and didnt think much of it since I wasnt the one who broke it. I come back from my holiday and was called into the managers office.Hes now told me that apparently the machine was lent to them for the christmas period and I was the only person who used the machine and that I mist have broke the machine. I told him that I was not the one that broke it and mycolleague can even vouch for me, and he did. Hes told me that he will have a talk with the people who lent them the machine and will let me know in the next few days.

Fast forward to yesterday I recieved my payslip and it says Deductions : -£50 which is very obviously for the machine. What I dont get is that I was never informed that they had reached a decision and I didnt even have a chance to prove that I didnt crack the machine. The manager is also taking a 1 month holiday so I cant contact him.

Im a uni student who only works a few days a week and rent to pay aswell as a another monthly payment so £50/week is quite substantial for me. Any help would help much appreciated.