Company credit card misuse

beartsarah

Just a general comment, she should be covered by the fact that she has raised the issue of fraudulent spending with both her manager who is misusing the card and the company CEO. She has made every attempt to have this investigated and has been ignored. However does she have proof that she raised her concerns? Did she do it in writing, by email, memo or did she document when she raised the concerns and what was said.

If she has evidence and there are liquidators involved I would suggest she raises the matter with them immediately and provides them with copies of correspondence and notes raising her concerns and showing a blind eye was being turned to it. She would not be responsible for the debt but could be implicated if it was uncovered especially if she receives the statements personally and receives the only copies of them.

Find out what she has and suggest she comes forward with what she knows. She has tried to do the right thing and honesty is always the best policy in insolvency and fraud situations.

beartsarah

Saying that a good point has been raised, hopefully the company credit card actually states the company name and she is just an authorised person to use it. If she is the only person authorised to use it (which would be surprising as I would have thought the manager would have authorisation too if it is on his behalf) she wouldn't be personally responsible for the debt but could be implicated further in fraud if she is actually committing fraud on her managers sayso - it would be even more important that she can demonstrate she is following instruction but does not agree with it and has raised concerns and objections to his use of company assets.

geoffky

If it was me i would be going to a solicitor and getting it all down on a file with them to store for when the crap hits the fan...And the reasons why i had to do what i had done...Cover your back is rule no1 in my world...
This will not end well..

Savvy_Sue

beartsarah wrote: »

Saying that a good point has been raised, hopefully the company credit card actually states the company name and she is just an authorised person to use it. If she is the only person authorised to use it (which would be surprising as I would have thought the manager would have authorisation too if it is on his behalf)

Our company credit cards have individual names plus the company name on them. My manager can't use my card, and she doesn't have one of her own. If she wants anything, she asks me to order it.

What I'm saying is that it would be very unusual for more than one person to be authorised to use each card: an individual signs the application for a company credit card, and the usual terms and conditions apply.

Mr_Toad

It's a credit card, there is a proper audit trail that can be tracked from beginning to end.

It might get messy but the truth is there in the financial records for anyone to see who looks at them.

Investigators would have to prove complicity on the part of your sister, this usually involves proof of financial reward. In these types of fraud the person in your sisters position normally gets a cut of the money or services claimed for as a reward, or reason, for them taking part or not reporting the fraud. This also usually enables the fraud to continue as it binds both parties together, if one goes down the other will too.

In your sisters case, if everything she's told you is true, she hasn't received any benefit from the use of the card and the audit trail will bear this out. The other reason for complicity in these situation is bullying, threat of job loss, keep quiet or else etc. Again in her case she has tried to raise the issue so she should be fine.

As others have said if the CEO was happy then it isn't fraud but it is a tax issue and HMRC will, I suspect, be more thorough than the police.

If he was lied to and really did believe what your sisters manager told him, that the claims were genuine business claims, then it is fraud and a tax issue but again your sister tried to raise the issue.

She should protect herself by having the proof that she did indeed raise the issue, copies of emails and letters in case someone decides to destroy evidence to implicate her.

It's a mess and it would be naive to think that the innocent never get punished. In her position I would seriously consider going to HMRC or the police and telling them her story and taking what proofs she has.