Employee stealing from work - advice?

yinhong

Hi,

I don't know if this forum is the right place for this post, so please forgive me if it's not! Ok, so here goes:

The employee is a 17 year old boy who works one night a week at a fast food takeaway for about 4 hours. He works at the counter - serving customers, taking their orders, and dealing with the money/change box.

The "change box" is the place where extra coins are stored, in case we are short in the till. Inside the change box are packets of £1s, £2s, 50ps etc, which total £150. Every time we need e.g. more £1 coins for the till, the procedure is to take out one packet of £1 coins and replace it with a £20 note. The employee has worked here for months and is very familiar with this procedure.

At the end of last night, it turned out that the change box was £40 short! There were two packets of £1 coins missing (so £40 worth), but no corresponding notes. Usually, this means the corresponding amount (£40) is EXTRA in the till.... but there wasn't any extra!

Mistakes can happen, I know, but here's why I'm sure he's stealing:

1) He is the ONLY person responsible for handling money on the nights he is working.
2) All the other nights when he is NOT working (when other people are responsible for the till), the till and change box is correct 99% of the time.
3) This is the key: Two weeks ago I warned him that for the previous 4 weeks THE TILL has been at least a few pounds short. I gave him the benefit of the doubt then. But for the two nights he's been working since that warning (last week and yesterday night) THE TILL has been correct, but the CHANGE BOX has been short! Last week ago we were £20 short, and now this week £40!

Clearly, he thought that we only check the till, and so decided to take money from the change box instead!

What is the best course of action, considering that I don't have any direct evidence that he stole the money, only a very strong inference?

Can I demand that he gives us the £60 back, or threaten him with police action?

Thanks in advance.

p.s. Sorry for the long post, hope the situation has been laid out clearly though!

ceridwen

I believe there are ways to invisibly mark money notes??? Some sort of marking one can make on a £5 note for instance that will only show up under fluorescent light or the like?

Perhaps you could check out the possibilities re invisibly marking a note and then place it in the box for however many nights it takes for it to be stolen by this employee and then get him to turn out his pockets and see if the note is amongst his own money?

There must be some way you could put a "test trap" in his way and wait for him to "fall into it" and then you would know for sure that he has stolen from you.

My feeling is that you are correct - but are finding it difficult to believe that anyone would be so stupid as to steal something if it was obviously them that was the thief. Some people really are that stupid...

ryan86uk

Be careful here!

You can mark your notes etc to see if he takes them of course just be careful how you go about doing it. It could be entrapment in the eyes of the law!

Bettie

Count the money with him before and after his shift, both sign to confirm the float. Tell him he is responsible for all shortages. Do this with all staff every time.

Pee

If he has worked there for less than a year, he will have no employment rights and so the best course of action may just be to ask him to leave.

I would have a good think about anyway to make him sign for the till, which could avoid any probnlems with theft in the future. (Either with him or with any other employee.)

I would be very careful about what is said and done. There was recently a case where an employee who was stealing was taken to the police station with a sign around his neck saying he had stolen something like £500 and there didn't seem much doubt that he had done it, but he was still able to claim damages from the boss!

MatyMoo

I had something similar in a previous place of work where the employee was responsible for counting and leaving the float for the next shift.

One clever so and so's till was always spot on but the person following was always down so suspicion was on the person following.

Turns out the money was being taken from the float so be careful it is not always what it seems.

I think counting and signing for the money in the till and float at the start of each shift is a great idea.

Uncertain

ryan86uk wrote: »

Be careful here!

You can mark your notes etc to see if he takes them of course just be careful how you go about doing it. It could be entrapment in the eyes of the law!

Rubbish!

Marking the notes is not entrapment!

Entrapment would be deliberately creating a situation that encourages him to break the law. For example, getting a friend to entice him to steal something from work with a promise of buying it from him.

yinhong

Thanks for the responses.

In the warning I gave him a couple weeks ago, I did say to him that from then on ANY money short from the till will be taken out of his wages.

So whether he's stealing or made several huge very mistakes (however unlikely that made seem), the fact is he has lost us £60, so should I simply demand it back?

What if he says no? What should I do then?

paulofessex

I think counting and signing the float/cash box amount is the best way as others have suggested. I would make it clear that this is a new procedure for all staff, place a notice in wage packets or on staff notice board.
You could also consider visiting your local police station and asking their advice in relation to the best way forward and possibly having a cctv installed directly at the till area.

yinhong

paulofessex wrote: »

I think counting and signing the float/cash box amount is the best way as others have suggested. I would make it clear that this is a new procedure for all staff, place a notice in wage packets or on staff notice board.

Thanks Paul, we will definitely be implementing this procedure from now on.

In the immediate situation, though, I think we will probably dismiss the employee. But if we just simply do that, it feels like he's gotten all the benefits - we've lost £60 and have to find an immediate replacement, and he's £60 up and out of a job he probably doesn't even want to be in!

I think the best case scenario would be if we could recover the £60 from him.

paddedjohn

put a camera over the till/float