Serious Help!!

worried_1

I'm sorry that I am sending you this message, but I am desperate, depressed and beyond despair. I suffer from mental health problems, and I did a terrible terrible thing at work which ended up with me getting the boot :-(

These past few months have been a very very difficult time for me, and I have been taking on everyone's problems while losing site of own. I ended up putting extra days down on my timesheet at work for the last few months for days and times I wasn't there, and I have been caught out.I owe roughly a thousand pounds, and I have explained and emailed my employer and the agency that I am prepared to pay back every penny that I owe. I did not mean for this to happen, and I am now worried that I will end up in prison or with a criminal record, if they do decide to pursue this through the courts( which they say many a time they will do).

I am not proud of what I have done, and I was not in the right frame of mind at the time to think of the consequences of my actions. From what they see, its a very very serious crime that I have done, and although I accept it and have to face the consequences of my actions, the guilt is eating me up inside and I am beside myself with worry and very very scared. The Agency have said that I now owe £10,000 which I know isn't right,and it seems a very excessive amount and although I feel very sick, they still want me to come into the office and sign a statement. My friend who has been acting as a mediator went through the timesheets with me and it is around £1000 that I owe. I also checked my P60 and all that I earned in time of employment there was just £11,000. I'm not clued up with how Recruitment Agencies work but would they been claiming compensation or other costs for what I have done?

Initially I was too scared to post on the board in case I got abuse, but as I sent a PM to the thread starter I was encouraged to explain on the boards.

I had an appointment with my GP a few weeks back and was signed off sick with Depression, but feel that I have let myself down big time..I have been to the GP in the past for my depression and anxiety, but everytime I feel like I am getting somewhere positive, I end up taking 2 steps back. I am having difficulty in coping, and going to court will push me over the edge.

I was also offered a job not so long ago and thought that it would be a fresh start for me to take things one step at a time, and it was a job that I had wanted to do for a long time,and they so happened to get in touch with me, but as the Agency have been constantly phoning me, saying how they would be getting the police involved, I ended up feeling worse and couldn't accept the job in the end.

I feel that I will never be employable again, and with a criminal record no one will take me on, as I would need to be CRB checked for the kind of job that I needed to do. I'm not sure if CAB or Legal Advice would even consider my case because of Fraud.

This is the first time that I have ever done something so stupid in my life, and just don't know what to do with myself anymore.

Any helpful advice would be most welcome

dan_essex

Ok, first things first, calm down and let’s look at this. You mention despair at having a criminal record, but you’re running ahead of yourself here because they haven’t called the police, have they?

Personally, I don’t think they will get the police involved anyway, because if they were going to go down that route they would have done so already. In fact, the police would have been there when they sacked you.

Now, everyone makes mistakes and it’s how we learn from our mistakes which tells us what sort of people we are. From what i’ve read of your post, you have admitted you were foolish and you also appear to be genuinely sorry for what you have done. You have also offered to pay back the money, which is good. Personally, i would pay back the money regardless....write them a cheque and give it to them by hand in an envelope with a letter saying again how sorry you are and how things have been tough for you with depressions etc. That would leave the ball in their court in regards to the money. If they want it back they will cash it, if they don’t they’ll tear it up.

I think you need to take this one day at a time, because you are worrying about things which may not happen. Take the initiative, write them a cheque for the money they say you owe and give it to them. Then take it from there.

LittleVoice

dan_essex wrote: »

Take the initiative, write them a cheque for the money they say you owe and give it to them. Then take it from there.

Of course you shouldn't give them a cheque for £10,000 if that is what they are claiming as it is clearly too much.

I would just say that you should work out what you think you over-claimed on your timesheets and offer to pay that. There are complications, of course, because they will have paid employer's NI on the payment to you.

Make a written offer regarding the hours you believe were over-claimed and that you want to pay them for this. Ask them to check your calculation of the amount of time and to get back to you as soon as they are able as you would like to pay them as soon as possible.

dan_essex

sorry, i didn't see that bit about 10,000k. :mad:

yes, that does sound strange. Work out your hours, and then write them all down clearly. Then go see them, with your workings out and see where they are claiming this 10k from.

snowqueen555

You nee dlegal representation, this is the most important thing. Go t o the citizens advice but I know they are very busy), but tey could probably recommend you someone to help.

good luck

teabelly

What they pay you isn't the half of it though. The employer will pay the agency more fees on top. The agency will also pay employers NI. Ask for a complete breakdown of their calculations on what they think you owe them and what the employer has paid to the agency. If you have been putting in extra days for months then it is possible you owe a lot more than you realise. You might consider what I'm saying as harsh but I don't know how you didn't understand what you were doing was completely wrong when you were doing it. It was just fraud and worse than that it was repeated fraud as you continued to do it for months. If the agency had pulled you up straight away you wouldn't have carried on so you continued as you realised you could get away with it. The agency has been rather remiss in not verifying working hours more carefully but it should be able to trust its workers to be honest about their hours. What you need to do is to find out why you did this - money problems, cry for help or another reason and get help with whatever made you do this.

Your home insurance may have a legal helpline that you can contact for advice. There is no harm in asking the CAB if they will help. Pay it all back and just hope that the agency will be satisfied with that. They probably won't give you a reference either so you'll need to be able to explain why.

If that job you wanted is still available talk to them and tell them everything. They may still take you on.

worried_1

The Agency are really applying the pressure at the moment, and although I sent back copies of the timesheets for extra hours I claimed for, my friend who has been acting as my mediator has said that she would help me out in any way. It seems that the Agency are not willing to accept this and are adamant that its £10,000 and are going to call the police(this is the 3rd time they have said this), so feel that I don't have a leg to stand on even though deep down the amount that they are claiming for is wrong. I only worked Part-time hours and my P60 states that I earned £11,000 within the year, so still confused with how it amounts to £10,000.

My friend has contacted them on my behalf, and asked them for a breakdown, but they say that they will not do so unless I come into the office, my friend was not pleased with this and feels that they will have the police waiting for me there, but at the moment I don't want to speculate. I have already told them that I am having a hard time dealing with my mental health and my GP is willing to inform them off my condition,but they are not in the least bit concerned and said I have to make a choice, either to come into the office or have the police involved. I am trying not to worry myself but can't help it, and all sorts of thoughts are going through my mind.

I am worried for the children, and there are days that I feel like I just want to hand myself into the police and get this awful situation over and done with. If the doorbell rings I am a bundle of nerves, and its got to the stage where I can't cope with being outside.

All I really want to do is focus on getting better and having a job so that I can get my life back on track for the children and to pay off what I owe to the Agency.

Savvy_Sue

It is possible that the agency are claiming what they were overpaid by the client, rather than just what they paid you. I can't see that this would have given such a large discrepancy, but that could be their starting point.

However surely the client would have "signed off" all timesheets?

worried_1

@teabelly. I can't really go into too much details, but I was in a very very bad way at the time. As I said I'm not proud of what I've done and have to live with it.But I am seeing a Counsellor at the moment who is helping me.

dan_essex

i'll be honest, i don't like the way the agency are making threats. Either they WILL call the police or they WONT. I don't understand why they keep threatening it.

I don't have a lot of respect for employment agencies anyway and it could be they are trying to pull a fast one because the company doesn't want to use them anymore over this. Personally, i WOULD go and see them.

If they DO get the police in, i can't see this going anywhere TBH. You have had some personal problems and you weren't thinking straight. You have offered to pay back the money and are willing to come to an arrangement. I really can't see this as a criminal matter, because people must do this all the time. and again, if it was as serious as they claim, why haven't the police been contacted already??

It isn't the crime of the century and i would write out all of your hours and then go see them. They have your address and, as i said, if it was THAT serious they would have phoned the police and given them your details.

CFC

It looks like the agency may be looking to claim what the client paid them. What kind of work did you do - because even if they wanted to reclaim the whole amount that they were paid it is extremely unlikely that the client paid 10k for you for those days unless you are an extemely specialised and highly paid worker, which seems unlikely if you only earned 11k. Of course it is also possible that someone sees an opportunity to make money out of you are is actually attempting blackmail.


I think that you need to put the police out of your mind. Is the agency aware that you have done this deliberately - have you admitted it? If there has been no conversation of this kind, then they could not involve the police anyway, as fraud only covers deliberate misappropriation of funds. Not to mention that the police are very unlikely to be really interested because a) unless you have admitted fraud to them or it is easy to prove, you would have the defence of 'inadvertent mistake' so what point in taking you to court and b) 1k is small beer for fraud.

What have you put in writing to them, if anything? If you have put nothing in writing so far then you might want to consider sending a letter, with the timesheets, and a cheque for the amount that you calculate you wrongfully claimed, and put on the letter that this is for final settlement of overpayment of wages. Do not add any more to it than that, do not apologise, say nothing other than what the cheque is final settlement for. Then there is no need for you to actually go in and see them. Under any circumstances that do not involve blackmail, this is the kind of financial affair that does not need a face to face meeting. If you are not in a situation where you can repay it straight away, then tell them that you will be paying by instalments of £X a month, sent to their office by cheque.

Remember this - you couldn't get anyone more morally strait laced than I am, but even I don't condemn you; desperation and depression make people do stupid things that they wouldn't do otherwise. Please do not let this ruin your life.