Fake invoices?

Evilm

MissSarah1972 wrote: »

Seems you have NO systems in place to stop ANY FRAUD at all.

I'm guessing that the one person who could spot all these issues IS the person putting through the invoices and 'payments'. (Other than OP who seems to have stumbled on it somehow).

They could be doing small invoices and claiming they paid petty cash to the 'plumber' - a slip with a scrawed signature on it and unless someone tries to actively validate the details of the supplier from the invoices against outside sources (you'd be surprised how many people & auditors FAIL to do this) then all looks fine.

If they are doing bank payments/cheques to this 'supplier' it will be easier to trace its going to the fraudster but again its easy to hide and hope that a random check doesn't pull that supplier to be verified.

I really would counsel OP to tip off higher management/ the business partner first and give them a first chance to look into it before resorting to HMRC or the police.

MissSarah1972

Evilm wrote: »

I'm guessing that the one person who could spot all these issues IS the person putting through the invoices and 'payments'. (Other than OP who seems to have stumbled on it somehow).

They could be doing small invoices and claiming they paid petty cash to the 'plumber' - a slip with a scrawed signature on it and unless someone tries to actively validate the details of the supplier from the invoices against outside sources (you'd be surprised how many people & auditors FAIL to do this) then all looks fine.

If they are doing bank payments/cheques to this 'supplier' it will be easier to trace its going to the fraudster but again its easy to hide and hope that a random check doesn't pull that supplier to be verified.

I really would counsel OP to tip off higher management/ the business partner first and give them a first chance to look into it before resorting to HMRC or the police.

no company should have the same person paying the invoices as signing them off for payment.

I know how easy it is to steal in accounts as an old supervisor of mine did the same. Cheques to herself by manipulating the name on the signed chqs then giving the invoices to a team member to put on the system and the supplier gets paid too so no one is aware there are two payments as she would move the debits around getting other people to do journals.

Also she was changing the bank accounts on suppliers to pay herself via the company her and her husband owned.

She was only found out when a new supervisor joined and I had to confirm to him a supplier was paid and we had to trace the payment back to find that the acct had been changed on the system! Opps. She then, after many weeks of re installing the back ups to the system to see who did what and when had a nice visit from the police. I believe it was near on £300k she had from the company.

I am not to sure about dropping someone in it for fear of not being believed.

CKhalvashi

anonimause wrote: »

Thanks CK.

JD is an employee, so technically not self employed. Does that change anything?

My staff are all on 0 hour contracts. The specific way that we work is sending hours to payroll (which in a very small company may be the director), payroll sorting the invoices in the company name and us sending the details on.

It's both tax fraud and fraud, and if it's not dealt with now, there could be an awful lot of problems.

CK

eamon

Every week in local papers up and down the country there are similar tales (feeding gambling habits and a recent one of a very expensive wedding) and the inevitable prison terms. On occasion firms have had to close down thus sacking everybody and all because of someones greed.

anonimause

Sorry everyone,

Despite having the thread setup send me emails everytime you reply, I never once got an email

This has happened because the Managing Director of the company handles everything. It's a very (VERY) small business.

What the MD is doing, is invoicing another company he owns that has VC funding for the amount I am paid as a salary each money, stating it is a monthly retainer.

These only came to light when the doing the VAT for the VC funded company.

Whilst doing the VAT, another (senior) member of staff noticed a number of issues (I have another thread relating to those) including a number of invoices created covering the costs of our salaries (it's not just me, there are other members of staff too).

I've already started applying for jobs and had interviews, however my concern now is whether I am liable for any tax, even though I was under the impression (I have emails to form an employee contract, although I never officially signed on. I have been employed for nearly 3 years) that I was an employee and not self-employed.

I believe the situation is going to turn extremely sour and extremely quick (i.e. in the next couple of days) and I've been advised to make my excuses not to turn into work until the situation is resolved.

My concern is as a result of all of this, a) am I liable for any tax/ni that he hasn't paid on my behalf and b) do I have to give him any notice given I have no contract (I assume a weeks notice per year otherwise?)

Cheers

MissSarah1972

You said made up invoices were created to cover up for missing money yet you haven't said where the missing money is going or why it's 'missing'?

anonimause

From what I have been told, money has been taken from the other company, including money to cover my wages.

Not that this is what's being brought into question, it's the fake invoices I'm bothered about...

MissSarah1972

anonimause wrote: »

From what I have been told, money has been taken from the other company, including money to cover my wages.

Not that this is what's being brought into question, it's the fake invoices I'm bothered about...

So the invoices are in your name?

ktothema

anonimause wrote: »

From what I have been told, money has been taken from the other company, including money to cover my wages.

Not that this is what's being brought into question, it's the fake invoices I'm bothered about...

I could be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 14 but...

I'm guessing you have a double problem here. Firstly, that you were under the impression that you were an employee but it doesn't look like tax an NI have been paid there. Secondly, you are Joe Bloggs of the plumbing supplies fake invoices, which give the impression you're self employed so may need to pay tax and NI but also looks like youve been in cahoots the entire time.

My gut says it would be to act on the fraud advice you've been given here sooner rather than later. Sorry I can't be much more help.

Sambucus_Nigra

Have you got copies of any of these fake invoices?