Employee caught pocketing money

[pcnrepellent]

Hello,

First off id like to say thank you for all the great work and advice the member put into these forums. I can't stress how helpful this is for people that are in vulnerable positions and need genuine advice.

I recently found out that someone close to me has been caught stealing from their previous work place, I wont name the place to remain anonymous. They have told me that they were interviewed by the workplace in which they crumbled and admitted, did not admit an amount but admitted to pocketing money from tills previously. Police were called the person in for an interview in which they again admitted it and received a police caution.

They are now being chased for repayment by an debt collector employed by the ex employer. I have advised the person to ask for the breakdown they are being chased for. They admitted to roughly £200, somehow they are being chased for £1400 now, I have attached a copy of the breakdown with redacted information and would appreciate any advise anyone has. Do they have any legal grounding to add these additional fees on top and how did the sum inflate from £200ish to £1k losses. there is no clarity whatsoever.

http://tinypic.com/r/33c7ybs/9

Thanks,

[ostell]

This wouldn't by any chance be RLP claiming?

[pcnrepellent]

It is not RLP, would there be any repercussions to the person if I named the relevant debt collectors?

I have also just realised there is a column that says provable value of fraud £115, but they are chasing for £1000 losses before adding on debt collector costs. I believe they had added on security costs, camera installations and other security costs in the £1000 before adding on £400 debt collector costs.

[ostell]

That's why I asked about RLP. They try it on. What they are trying to do us claim for costs as if they were new but they have already been paid for the service and would have had those costs even if your friend had not been involved

[pcnrepellent]

I guess I feel bad for this person because their circumstances were bad at the time, they were 18 naïve financially struggling and they even after taking a police caution they are being exploited for 4-5x the amount that they allegedly took in the first place. Is there any legal grounding in adding on made up charges inflating the amount.

If the person was to go to court, would the ex employer only have to show an amount they believe was taken or are they put to strict proof in which they are only able to claim back/argue they amount they can factually prove was taken which according to their letter is £115.

[Amethyst]

Provable Value of Fraud - £110

Value of Offences Admitted - £1000

then they've added admin stuff which seems irrelevant -
Mileage costs of £11.55
Investgation TIme - £240
Other ?? £18.00
and then another 'Other' of 130

with a subtotal of £399.55- then added on to the £1000 'admitted offences' value



Sigh.

I'd offer to repay the £110 that was taken (unless it was recovered at the time) and ask them for a full breakdown and documentary evidence/justification of any other figures.

If they had taken other monies previously, surely the cashing up process would show any anomalies and they'd be able to evidence when and how much had been taken ( and then attempt to attribute it to the accused )

Who is the Debt Collection 'agent' ?

[pcnrepellent]

The agent is CRS. I don't have the letters at hand as they are not mine but the person had told me that the ex employer tried to force them to accept that they had taken a greater figure and then they had enclosed a letter of breakdown which was around £500-600 taken (measured by what you have said about the cashing up anomalies), £400 on investigative costs including cameras and financial investigators time spent uncovering the issue which pushed the total to £1000.

This was before CRS had been passed the case whom then added on £400 fees pushing the claim to £1400

The person in question is a close family member and seems scared of challenging this and thinks that this is their punishment and they must just pay the £1400 now. This cant be right? - is it within the employers legal right to add on investigative costs such as installing security cameras into the claim. Then for CRS to add on £400 onto the claim.

[Amethyst]

Ahh CRS. Example letters here https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...33#post1090833


Does your family member have a copy of that letter from their employer pre-CRS involvement ?

hen they had enclosed a letter of breakdown which was around £500-600 taken (measured by what you have said about the cashing up anomalies), £400 on investigative costs including cameras and financial investigators time spent uncovering the issue which pushed the total to £1000.

The person in question is a close family member and seems scared of challenging this and thinks that this is their punishment and they must just pay the £1400 now. This cant be right?

The punishment is accepting a formal caution from the police. CRS, much like RLP and DWF, rely on scaring crap out of people because they are 'ashamed' of what they've done and trying to capitalise on it....

Repayment of what was stolen - yes.
Directly attributable costs - yes
Irrational invented costs - no.

See now if that breakdown from CRS had the CRS fee added as a separate charge - then maybe you'd trust them a little, but they have hidden it in the Value of Offences Admitted - which is just wrong/underhanded/misleading.

Who's mileage is it ?
How many hours on investigation ? What were they paid ?

If you want to do some reading about these kind of things theres a good judgment and transcripts from a shoplifting case from 2011 which annihilates the breakdown of costs presented to the court by RLP/Boots.

[pcnrepellent]

Thank you, I will read up on this further. I had read some other posts but all of the other posts are people forgetting to pay for an item or stealing 1 small item from store as opposed to cash as an employee.

[Amethyst]

The principles are the same.

I think most of the attributable costs part is Transcript Day 2.

https://legalbeagles.info/forums/for...h-and-the-lies

If you can get the original employers invoice/breakdown that would be a good starting point to challenge the CRS invoice.

[des8]

Is it even worth corresponding with CRS?
They are only debt collectors and it is the employer who will have to initiate any court action.

[Amethyst]

Probably not - but comparing the invoice from employer vs invoice from CRS might be interesting