IF YOUR COMPANY HAS A THIEF: WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT?

Call the police?

Call the thief into the office and dismiss them?

Call your solicitor?

You could do all of those things, and then get it horribly wrong; the police may only prosecute for a fraction of the loss; you may be taken to an Employment Tribunal by the thief, or your solicitor may not be experienced in employment law, criminal law or the recovering of money.

First of all if you are a victim of fraud by one of your employees, you are not alone. The typical company loses 6 percent of its annual turnover to fraud.

SO YOU NEED A PLAN

In most cases when a fraud is discovered, you have a pretty good idea of the identity of the thief; this is a very dangerous time for you, and you need to use your head and dust off your plan.

I will now show you step by step what to do if you are a victim:

STEP 1

Call me; I will act as your liaison between your lawyer and the police, leaving you to get on with running your business.

I will implement your plan (if you have one), if you haven’t a plan, I’ll give you one of mine; it’s a very simple plan, and it goes like this:

a. Find out how much money is involved and how it was taken.

b. Begin the disciplinary process; remember you don’t want end up in an Employment Tribunal.

c. Gather evidence to criminal and civil court standards.

d. Perform an asset assessment on the thief.

STEP 2

I inform the police.  I make an appointment to see them, giving them an outline of the nature of the problem.

When I go and see the police I take all my evidence with me; that mean’s Section 9 Witness Statements and Exhibits, all in a format that they use.  You have immediately saved the police a lot of work, and it goes a long way to getting them “on side”.

STEP 3

This is the time where you use your lawyer; because now you are going to begin the process of getting your money back including costs, yes, that’s why one of the first things we did was an asset assessment on the thief.

We can do this in one of two ways:

Use the Proceeds of Crime Act 1988 and amended 2002.  The CPS Barrister will apply to the Court for a Restraint Order on the thief’s assets; this will be followed with a Confiscation Order upon conviction.

Or simply sue the thief in the Civil Court, if you’re a bit worried about this from a costs point of view; remember you now know what the thief’s assets are.  If the thief is convicted in a criminal court, this effectively takes away any defence they may have in a civil court.

I said there are two ways to get your money back; there is a third way which should always be considered; the thief may wish to avoid costs being awarded against them in a civil court and negotiate a return of the money, plus the costs incurred by me and your lawyer.

To recap: the criminal prosecution, the disciplinary process and the action for civil recovery can all happen at the same time, but they are done as three separate phases albeit coordinated.

So the three simple steps to take if you are a victim of a fraudster; so simple you could do it all yourself; couldn’t you?

If you didn’t have a business to run.

Get in touch with Paul Wiseman Investigations or call 01691 655732.