Staff Member Stole Clients ??

[syvonne]

Hello, I have had a senior stylist at my hair salon for just over 18 months, it became apparent that he was stealing money, manipulating cost of services and then taking the difference as a tip, I was never able to catch him in the act but he recently stated he was leaving giving 4 weeks notice, I then found out he had already started work at his new place of employment on his 2 days off whilst still working for me, this was in breach of his contract so I terminated his employment with immediate effect. He has now started full time at his new salon and has been contacting my clients via social media and text to entice them over, these were clients that were booked in at my salon, this has amounted to a few hundred pounds in lost revenue for me. I am yet to pay him for the hours he did during March as he is payed monthly, my question is how do I stand legally with regards to the clients he poached ? ... could I deduct the revenue from these bookings from his pay ?

Many thanks

Yvonne

[atticus]

I don't suppose you had terms in the empoyment contract preventing him contacting your clients after termination of his employment.

[syvonne]

Yes, absolutely !! ... the employment contract specifically stated that he was not to contact any clients for a period of 6 months.

[syvonne]

This is direct from his contract:

During your employment and for a period of six months following the termination of your employment for any reason, you shall not solicit or induce or undertake any act, or permit any third party to undertake any act likely or intended to induce any customer or client of the Company, with to whom you have provided professional services during the course of the last twelve months, or for any customer or client to cease to patronize the business or premises of the Company, and neither will you otherwise deal with or endeavor to take away such customers or clients. For the avoidance of doubt solicitation is included but is not limited to telling the customers or client the identity of the new employer, providing your personal or new employers contact details to customers or clients, and/or allowing your name or photograph to be used in conjunction with any advertising in any media.

You agree to make your new employer aware of the obligations in this section on commencement of employment.

[atticus]

Then you can take action to enforce it. Do you have legal expenses insurance cover?

[syvonne]

No, I don't have that insurance.

[atticus]

You have a choice: take legal action or let it go.

Asking a solicitor to write a firm later asap may do the trick for you.

[syvonne]

The part that is particularly annoying is the fact that we now have proof that he was deliberately overcharging clients, then putting it through the till at the correct price and then taking the difference in cash out of the till as a tip ... we discovered one literally in the last hour, he charged a client £117 put it through the till at the correct price of £107 and took £10 cash from the till and marked it down as a tip ... we don't know yet how many times he did this, it is all on record though as it is a computerised system.

Are we legally entitled to withhold his March wages pending further investigation into how much he has stolen ?

[atticus]

paging ULA - but how does the amount of pay compare with the lost business, projected over 6 months?

[syvonne]

It's mainly the money that he has stolen and the money that was on the books for the next 2 weeks, I can accurately work this out as I can trace it all back on the computer and verify if the tips he "claimed" were given to him were in fact genuine, I can also work out the lost revenue for the appointments he poached for the coming 2 weeks, this would give me an accurate total figure for both transgressions.

I would then like to deduct this amount from his March wages, but I just don't want to drop myself in a mess legally.

Could I withhold paying him his March wages pending 'further investigation'? as it may take time to collate all the information from past clients.

[ULA]

Have to agree with atticus in post #7 in respect of a strongly worded solicitor's letter may make him think again about soliciting clients away from you, particularly if you quantify the loss and that you will pursue him for this.

With regard to the salary you owe him for March, up until his termination date, unfortunately despite what he has done then you would need to pay him together with pay for any accrued but untaken holiday. Not to do so would allow him to make an claim against you for unlawful deduction of wages which he could start via Early Conciliation using ACAS and then onto an Employment Tribunal. However, if he did that you have a potential argument of his breach of contract but that said this aspect is a civil matter not employment matter (employers do not use the Employment Tribunal to make claims against ex-employees).

[syvonne]

Even though we have proof that he has stolen money from clients?

We can’t withhold his wages pending further investigation ?

As I am now having to reimburse the clients for tips they never gave to him!!

[ULA]

The issue is he has stolen from the client by overcharging them not the salon although I appreciate that for the reputation of your salon you want to reimburse your clients.

I would suggest that you very quickly work out how much you are going to have to reimburse clients due to his overcharging and your loss due to his solicitation of your clients. Then either get a solicitor to write a letter or you do so in the first instance (accepting of that does not get a positive response you would then need to send a solicitor's letter).

If you decide to send the initial letter you will need to:

1. Set out the allegations in respect of his overcharging the clients (together with your proof) and the amount you will have to reimburse.
2. Detail his breach of contract i.e. what you set out on your post #4 together with the evidence.
3. Acknowledge that you owe him £xxx in salary for the period of xxx date to xxx date in March and if applicable that you owe £xxx for accrued but untaken holiday, however you intend to offset this against what you are owed in 1 & 2 above.

[syvonne]

That’s great, thank you !!
obviously a few of the clients are more than annoyed and a couple have mentioned getting the police involved, is this something to mention in the letter t ?

[echat11]

Have a chat with the police,

https://www.met.police.uk/cp/crime-p...heft-by-staff/