Proving theft at work

[jedimistress]

I am the Treasurer for a charity where one paid worker has been taking cash and not handing it to me for banking purposes.

What sort of evidence would we need ot dismiss the worker? Or could we simply tell her what we know and ask her to resign before we do a full investigation / audit. Then do we need a lot of evidence? At the moment, the worker could just deny it or claim she has passed it to me.

The latest item was a lady requsted a recipt for £74.50, for which we had provided a service, and she had paid for, but nothing has been passed to me and this goes bakc over 4 months, Prior to this, I became suspicious as no cash was banked for 6 months which is uncharacteristic, with other things thrown in, like people mentioning they had oaid cash, and me not ever receiving that money.

We later tightened up cash recording, then I found I was having to specifically request amounts when they were not forthcomin. The lady looked surprised when I requested the amounts,m but claimed to have a bag of cash at home!!! She lies so easily and seems to have an answer fr anything.

Legally, how much evidence, and what types are seen as reasonable in order for us to dismiss the employee?

[boxtops]

I don't know your answer about evidence etc but it seems to me that you have to set in place a process where money must be given to you weekly, to avoid this sort of thing, and surely to keep your cashflow going - what would happen if said lady had a burglary at home, and the cash was stolen?!

[factor-fiction]

Why not ask the police for advice?

[wolf63]

When your worker takes cash in from a 'customer' is a receipt given? Is it normal to have cash paid in?

You may know that she is stealing but you are going to have to have some solid evidence in place to actually prove it.

I know zilch about law but worked for way too many years as a Civil Servant. Taking in money I would have given the customer a receipt from a book which contained numbered pages, the money would then be my responsibility until I got some other person to sign for it - usually in a register. Although it seemed to take all day to do tasks such as this it ensured that things of value did not just vanish into somebody's purse.

Do you have such a system in place? If not - why?

Try and see if the Police can help you - they will tell you what evidence will be required.