Accused of Stealing Money at Work
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I worked for a superstore for 28 years. Till discrepancies were not unknown, large or regular cash thefts I came across quite a few times.
1. Seaside town store. Regular shortages of £10 and £20. Never proved but later uncovered a fiddle between store manager and 1 asst manager where they faked alarm call outs to claim mileage. When the call outs started the till shortages ended, and the sums involved were pretty similar. The believed the were due some travel money as both lived some distance away.
2. Railway town store. GSM angry at being denied promotion to new large format stores started helping himself to cash from vending machines! Shortages initially blamed on cash office person (who had keys) GM helped himself out of hours.
3. Glass Town Store. 20 year plus service former admin manager, former till supervisor, former front end team leader. When job roles changed demoted back to till supervisor, knew systems inside out. Clever credit card / cancelled customer order refund scam onto her own cards.
4. Posh Scouse seaside town store. 10 year service admin assistant with a cloud over her reputation denied access to cash office because of persistent minor shortages, started being extra helpful and jumping on a till when ever someone needed the loo or something. Caught her red handed with fake refund made out to take cash. Traced back and found about 30+ instances.
5. Seaside Town store (some years later) cash missing numerous tills, numerous operators. A middle manager with a gambling problem was caught lifting notes when he was supposed to be doing cash lifts via air pod system. He had been a manager at about 3 other retailers but only had 6 months service.
6. Rough Scouse Store. Service desk team member lifted bags of £1 coins (£20 per bag) several times. Foolishly went across retail park and spent money in Boots who showed us CCTV when we asked. Denied it but walked out.
7. Posh Roman Town store, 10 year service lad, department manager. keen and helpful. Store used him for opening up and putting tills out. Constant cash shortages. Hidden camera in cash office caught him pocketing a measly £5. After dismissal he got another retail job and did same thing.
8. My Hometown Store. Goods in manager, male in his 50's, long server, colluded with delivery driver to steal large and high value items with a clever method I won't go into!
Can't remember any more, but statistically it is long serving middle management or supervisors with good knowledge of systems and procedures who steal when its done either large scale or in some clever way. They are not adverse to blaming someone else, even to the point of stealing from an individuals till if they don't like that person to get them sacked.
When they are caught a number of incidents from the store suddenly start to make sense!0 -
As to 'discussing', yes in this situation OP would need to get clearance from HR or manager for X to accompany them (because they'd have to be off the shop floor).
However, I once had to do a disciplinary with one of my team. As was their right, they invited a colleague to attend, but did not divulge the nature of the complaint. Colleague was there to support, take notes etc but I am fairly certain colleague had no idea what was going on before we started ...
I'm thinking back to another disciplinary in which I was not directly involved but heard about through a manager with a loose tongue. There was union support on that occasion, and the first (and only) question was "How can you prove that the substance in the pouch which X lost and which you found and then returned to X was anything other than normal tobacco?"
this one's not as straightforward as that, but I think I'd go into cracked record technique, which may or may not be enough. "By your own evidence, I was not the only person on that till that day. By your own evidence, I was only on the till for X hours. I did not take any money. What evidence do you have that it must have been me?"
Of course they do not have to have proof, only reasonable grounds to believe. So IF they dismiss, you stick in an appeal straight away.
I hope she is using her time on suspension to job hunt, because even if the accusations are swept aside I wouldn't want to work there any more.Signature removed for peace of mind0 -
So the floats are only counted by one person alone? At my work place it was alway done with a witness including any safe and petty cash counting which was double signed morning and night.
Notes can get stuck behind tills though, I assume they pulled the tills out to look? I found a £50 note once stuck right under and at the back of the till. It was dusty, god knows how long it had been there.
I would just keep stating the facts as you know them. It wasn't you. You were on til at X times and others have access before and after. You could not confirm yourself that the float was correct at the start.0 -
Just because someone is a thief doesn't mean they are capable of making the correct change! You can steal money and make a mistake with change. It proves nothing.
Yea, that was the point I was making... (minus the not making correct change bit, sub in stealing an odd amount to make it look less like stealing).0 -
I'm confused. In post #1 the OP seems to be saying that the employer is saying that only one person worked on the till in question on that day, but the OP denies that that was the case. Then, in a later post, the OP says that his wife has evidence (presumably from the employer) that sign in and off codes show that his wife was not the only person to use the till on that day.0
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few points:
Their procedures are shocking, yet they seem to think the have implemented procedures to minimise cash losses? If there has already been a problem with missing money, why were they not doing random till checks every few hours? If a till is correct at 11am and 2 hours later is £20 quid down and only one member of staff has been signed on..After interviewing Donald Duck (Duty manager) in charge that evening of cashing up. He explained that there were no issues that day with the cash office, he explained that he started cashing up the tills like normal however till 1 was missing £120 odd pounds so he checked the till 3 times and it wasn't there. So he accepted the loss hoping that it would be in another till or the cash office.
Why are they saying she was on the till from 14.00 until 19.00 when the till will prove when she signed on and off that day? Did she actually log off when Donald went on at 19.00(cause if she did, he would have logged on using his number at around 19.00)
At cashing up time, is the money collected from each till in a numbered bag and taken to cash office
or is the cash drawer lifted off and taken to the cash office?
I presume every till's contents are kept away from the other ones both on the shop floor and in the cash office during counting to ensure there is no "cross contamination" as it were.....so why would the duty manager think he might find the "missing" money in ANOTHER till or in the CASH OFFICE?
When putting the float in for the next day is it:
done the night before in the cash office using cash from that day's takings in that till,effectively taking all cash out and leaving the float of £250?
Brought round in a bag using £250 of yesterday's takings and put into the till first thing the next morning?
If there is more than one person signed onto the till over the course of a day, then how can they can say one specific person took the money? I presume each cashier/manager has a unique log in and pass code which is registered on the memory on the till? They can look back and see what log ins were used, when they signed on, and when they signed off etc.
Keep re-iterating that the trainee supervisor, your wife and the duty manager had access to that till that day, not only your wife, as will be shown on their electronic till records.
Don't point the finger at anyone else.0 -
Hi OP,
Is there CCTV at the entrance exit to the store, the staff entrance if it's separate or wherever Mini mouse enters the store to start her shift? I read in your statement reply that she wasn't on the premises at the start of the time period she is accused of being on the tills i.e 2pm so CCTV of her entering the premises at the start of her shift later on would prove this. Any other CCTV from the store area might prove this too e.g. if it shows her walking to/from a staff area. Did she take a toilet/rest/cigarette break during her shift and somebody else takeover from her during that period. If so again the CCTV comes into play and did she log out when she did that and back in again when she returned or did she find she was already logged back into the till when she returned.
I don't have experience with this type of thing but she needs all the evidence she has to prove whereabouts at the time frame they're accusing her. Does she take public transport to work? If yes does she have ticket stubs to show time of journey. I'm in London and here we have Oyster cards which allows you to login and print out your recent journeys. If you have a similar thing where you are, the journeys are time stamped in real time and recorded against the card so will show she wasn't on the premises for the entirety of the time she was accused. I agree with others about the 2 year employment rule, sadly for your wife they might've decided this is a cheap way to get rid of staff or perhaps the management have been caught with sticky fingers and are looking to pass the buck. Despite all of that whether your wife keeps her job or leaves for a new job she should do her utmost to clear her name. They shouldn't get away with pinning this on an innocent person. Is your wife allowed to keep her phone with her at work? Hopefully not because the logs may be able to help to. If your wife made calls/texts/messages shortly before she started her shift this could be used as further proof of not being on the shop floor at the times they're accusing her of BUT that only works if they have a no-phone on shop floor policy which i know many stores don't!! Any receipts from the day around the time they're accusing again would prove she wasn't there during the entirety of the time they say she was. Finally does your wife have to sign in/swipe in when she enters and leaves the premises, if yes there will be a log somewhere and your wife need a copy of that to prove when she was and wasn't on premises. Perhaps she might need a Freedom of Information request for that but it would likely show who else was on the premises and until when which may also help her case. Perhaps you should also consider visiting citizens advice where they sometimes have a solicitor doing Pro Bono. Even if you only get an hour your wife may get valuable guidance of what they can and can't do in these circumstances. It's quite clear to all on here that their procedures are far from watertight and this wouldn't stand up in a real court of law not this 'DIsney' one let alone a tribunal if she were able to go to one.
I really hope some of what i've said helps or gets you thinking creatively how else your wife can prove it wasn't her.
Sorry this is like a stream of consciousness but i couldn't sleep and cam across your thread and hoped some of my thoughts might be able to help you.
Wish you all the best with this.0 -
P.S. would it help in any way if your wife can find out how often money has gone missing and tills don't tally? Hopefully there will be other instances on days and during times when your wife doesn't work but when one or both of the cartoon managers or other suspects are there.0
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I'm afraid that proving she wasn't there for part of the time isn't proof of anything at all. It is just a distraction. Savvy Sue's "cracked record" is the best advice. Keep it simple, keep it clear, don't muddy the water with orang points or accusations. It may not work - but that has nothing to do with it being a weak defence, and everything to do with other agendas that may be playing out. It's the strongest defence she can put. Their evidence is flawed, and she didn't do it. Full stop. No elaboration or speculation.0
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