Internal investigation into suspected fraud - don't know what to do. Please help.

hoggiebear

8 weeks ago I was spoken to by HR in relation to transactions I had disputed on my bank account (held with my employer - finance industry). I was given no warning of the meeting and was not allowed representation. No investigation had officially begun at that stage.

Their line of questioning was around my integrity and that of my immediate family members. Having worked in finance for 12 years I was very angry to have been treated this way given that although I am staff, I am still entitled to dispute transactions on my bank account should I not recognise them. I am very much of the opinion that no one in my household would commit such an act but I have raised the question with them to be on the safe side; they too were appauled that I would even ask the question.

I disputed the transaction as a normal customer would and in no way abused my position within the company.

At the time, I provided various pieces of evidence which I had gathered myself from the merchants in question, where some of them had confirmed my accounts held with them had been compromised. I have also fell victim to the recent heartbleed bug. I checked with my broadband provider what my ip address was in order to supply this information to aid the investigation and I was informed that I have a dynamic ip address which means it changes everytime I reboot my router and they cannot trace a specific ip address to me (I have this in writing).

After 8 weeks of hearing nothing from either HR or our fraud department I assumed no further action was being taken against myself and the fraud investigation would simply run its course.

However, today at around 15:45 I was again frogged marched without warning into a meeting with my managers. I was not warned or allowed representation. I was informed that an official investigation had now begun as a result of their findings from the fraud investigation. They stated that some of the merchants had provided proof of the delivery address (my address) and confirmed that a signature had been obtained for some of the deliveries. They would not confirm which transaction they were referring to. I was then told that some of the deliveries had been made to neighbours addresses but again they would not confirm which transactions or neighbours.

Out of the blue they started asking about my financial position and if I had applied for a loan at any point in the last 13-15 months. I could not recall applying for a loan but informed them that I may have at some point during that time enquired about a loan for around £6000 via money supermarket but no actual applications had been made.

I was then asked if I had applied for a loan of £20k plus through the company I worked for to which I said no, a) because I know I wouldn't get a loan of that amount on my salary and b) because I had no need to. I asked if this too had happened in addition to the fraud I had highlighted to them and they said they couldn't confirm that.

By the end of the meeting I was physically shaking (I have a disability and suffer from anxiety as a result), my mouth was so dry I could hardly speak and my head was pounding.

I have now been informed that I need to submit my statement to them confirming my version of events and this along with the notes they took today will be passed to HR for review and possible disciplinary action!!!!

I have never been in trouble at work before and I just feel completely sick at the thought of possibly losing my job.

A normal customer would not be interrogated in this way but I am disadvantaged simply because I am staff. It is the bank holiday weekend so I now have 3 days of worrying ahead of me as I can't get it out of my head. Deep down I know I have done nothing wrong, I am not stupid enough to highlight a situation like this to them if I thought for a second that I would be compromised. I mean, it was me who reported the unsual activity to them in the first place!!!!!

As a final kick to the stomach when I was leaving the room, my manager had the check to say, I can see you're due in for overtime on Monday, as you are not suspended I don't have a problem with you coming in to work!!!!!!!!!

Has anyone been through anything similar to this and if so how did it turn out? Any advice would be welcome to put my mind at ease.

I'm so worried I will lose my job under 'Gross Misconduct' and then never be able to get another job.

daytona0

I'm thinking one of 3 things;

1. You're more anxious than you'd care to admit and thus blowing up a routine internal investigation out of proportion (you do know the ins and outs of the system after all so you can't blame them for trying to "trip you up")

2. You've just told us a pack of lies

3. They may be discriminating you a bit



I don't know, but 2 of those have very fair outcomes so there is probably no need to worry at this stage! Just chill and see what happens in the next few days. If it number 3 and you get sacked then give them a run in the courts (nothing you do will likely stop this from happening so theres no point worrying about it....)

jobbingmusician

I do remember your original post, I think.

There's a real discontinuity between two things - your account of what happened (you experienced this as being 'frogmarched' and 'kick in the stomach'), and the fact that your employer is happy to have you back to work on Monday, even working overtime. This suggests to me that you are actually worrying too much. A fraud has happened somewhere (you know this, because you know your account has been compromised) and your employer has a duty to investigate it fully if it happened on an account they run. You know that you are prone to worrying too much. Stop worrying and enjoy your weekend.

By the way, is it possible that when your manager said 'I can see you're due in for overtime on Monday, as you are not suspended I don't have a problem with you coming in to work' they were actually being supportive? Because it does sound like a real possibility that was the case to me, honestly....

Paypeanuts

You won't be dismissed for gross misconduct, because if they were going to go down that route you WOULD be suspended now because your potential fraud would be considered a huge threat to the company...and your manager offered to maintain your overtime for Monday precisely because you're not suspended...so don't let it overshadow you.

hoggiebear

Update:

I've been trying to gather as much evidence as possible today to support my case so logged into my online banking to retrieve the first email I sent to my bank account provider/employer where I said I was becoming worried about the security of my account. This was sent to them prior to the majority of the fraudulent transactions but they did not close the account/stop the card.

My worry now is that when I logged on the bank account in question was no longer showing. Although I had all but closed the account (transferred all direct debits/salary payment etc to another provider and removed all funds - simply due to the way I had been treated by my employer 8 weeks ago) our child benefit still gets paid into that account. If they have closed it we will not receive these payments. I have already contacted HMRC about transferring these payments to the other provider too but I've not had any confirmation that this has been done.

Is it normal for them to close the account all together. I'm thinking that they really are now suspecting that this was me and have closed my account for that reason. I've had no notification of this from them.

Help.

swingaloo

looking at your other threads you have £86.000 in debts and have been talking about a case for irresponsible lending so considering you are working for a financial institution maybe they are aware of your circumstances and are digging.

tomtontom

Is your employer aware of your debt issues? It is often a condition of employment in financial services that you notify them of such difficulties.