Lawyers: Is my Co-Worker Guilty of Stealing? or Not?
We don't have material evidence but my fellow worker (Employee A) has repeated records of not returning money from disbursements.
Here's the incident:
Employee A was given a cash advance to pay for our store's tax. Employee A withdrew it last August 10. about 7 days passed and a supplier was collecting, the payment for the supplies was ready to be withdrawn from the bank for payment to the supplier but Employee A chose not to withdraw it and said she'll use the cash she advanced for Tax instead.
Last Friday (Sep 14), Employee A withdrew the cash payment supposed to be used for the supplies now to be used as payment for the Tax. But she said, the bank was offline so she wasn't able to pay the Tax.
Then this Monday (Sept 17) Employee A absented herself, she said to our employer she can't come. Then come Tuesday morning, at about 8:00 AM I reminded her to go pay the Tax because we might already be charged with penalty if we pay late. She said she'll do, but after an hour has passed Employee A was just at her desk, then comes snack time, our employers were calling her, and she doesn't come, then after about fifteen minutes she comes crying please help me, "the cash i put in my cabinet got stolen." She says she hid it in one of her cabinets.
We don't have enough evidence, but here are what we investigated so far.
1. Employee A had past dishonesty issues: She was tasked by the payroll officer (Employee B ) to give the money to our fellow employees. There was one employee that was overlooked by the Employee B that was actually already separated a few months earlier. Employee B overlooked it because Employee B was also given multi-tasks. Employee B was doing the work of like 5 people.
2. Employee A also has many unliquidated cash advances
3. Employee A although was already proven guilty and admitted to what she did in #1 doesn't seem to think that it is a past bad record. She says, "i don't have a bad record in this store so why do they accuse me?"
4. She says she was already suspecting for a long time that someone was opening her cabinet because the lock is inverted many times)
5. Here the problem: Employee A's alibi is that she was seen by other two Employees (Employee C and D) last Sunday (Sept 16) holding the Brown Envelope with the wrapped money inside but she says the envelope was only bulging and she says she put it in so that it wasn't obvious enough that people would assume that there was money in it. She says she took the envelope with the money upstairs together with the documents to be signed by the employer, Employee C and D were at the Employer's office at that time I asked them separately in an informal conversation and the employer confirms). Employee A says, they saw her at her office putting in the envelope into one of her cabinets. But Employee C and D were at the employer's office for a long time. So there's no way they would know which cabinet she hid it into.
6. Employee A also repeatedly compares it to another instance when she put money into one of her cabinets and it wasn't concealed enough but it never got lost. And says, "If the money I didn't conceal never got lost in this cabinet, then why would the money i concealed in the envelope would get lost?" Maybe because she is insinuating that it got lost because Employee C and D saw her put the money in it.
7. Here's another problem: We don't have CCTV so we can't accuse her.
8. We also inquired at the bank if it ever went offline last Sep 14. But the Bank says it was online the whole day.
Comments
why was this person not fired after the first problem? more importantly why were they repeatedly trusted with money?
i'm no lawyer but i'm sure the advice of a 16 year old high school girl with adhd is just as legit.
If the money got "stolen" while it was in her possession, she should be held responsible as if she's the one who stole it. That's really careless of her, especially with her history of lying and all. The money she lost should come out of her check(s).
How much money are we talkin' anyway?
Is there some reason your store has to pay taxes in cash? That sounds like an accounting problem.
If the employee insists the cash was stolen, a police report should be filed.
Yes, it's a starting business (and maybe that's why they multi-tasked most employees), the store uses cash instead of checks.
$1,585. excluding her unliquidated cash advances.
Yup, that's the problem, or at least they should have given her a warning on the first incident. The employer is too nice. she's still working and they haven't even finished investigation (not a police one but their own investigation). They say they can't accuse her because evidence is not strong enough.
Wait what is this about really. Is this why Telltale shut down?
no. it's another thread
Fool me once shame on you Fool me twice shame on me. Stop giving this person any responsibility.
true. they're too nice, if i were them she's terminated from work.
I'm not a lawyer, but a law student (third year):
Lawschool 101: the accuser must prove the accused guilty;
So yeah, it's actually ironic how this is being discussed in the forum of a company that had the same problem; lack of rigorous administration.
In the corporate world, all the money should be with the money guy, the "Vaughn", the accountant.
When you have the money guy, any losses, unless proven to NOT be his fault, MUST be given back. This is not true to regular employees tho, so unless the employee is hired especifically for dealing with money, the company must prove he is guilty in a lawsuit,
She is not the accountant but she's the one that is delegated by the employer to be sent to pay electric bills, utilities, taxes, permits, etc. The employer doesn't have accountant, only bookkeeper because they can't afford to pay a regular salary of a real accountant. That's also why they give multi-tasks to their employees, like 1 employee does the work of two or three persons.
If there is no evidence that she's the one who stole, but her alibi is not logical and absolutely a lie, can the employer remove her and will it be sufficient enough that there's no one who really stole the money from her?
Unfortunately, the simple delegation to a regular employee is not enough to form this type of liability.
About your question, i honestly don't know, maybe the company could get away with it, but it is likely she will sue. What really works in practice is finding an excuse and sending the employee away with all of her severance and rights, even if she did something shady. Anyway, i do recommend hiring a local lawyer, he might know a better option.
I'm sorry, wrong use of words. What I meant was it was included in her job description being in charge of payments.
still not enough. But maybe a judge could be persuaded, wouldn't bet on it tho
Well maybe an investigation could gather proof, talk to the police, good luck!
Is there like a grace period for the investigation? because i don't think the employer is doing anything about it, she thinks the employee is indispensable. it's been a while now and probably the evidences are already tampered with.
Then the employer has just decided to take the loss. At least it wasn't your money.
No grace period, but you'd have to check the local statute of limitations to see if the crime can still be punished, usually a matter of decades