What to do when you suspect employee fraud

Suppose you suspect that someone in your company is stealing or involved in fraud:

An employee is working unusually or unnecessarily late
The person in charge of purchasing is spending too much time with a supplier
A member of your sales staff claims to have lost the receipts for a large expenses bill

What should you do?

Innocent until proven guilty

Remember, suspicion is not enough - you need proof before you can act.

Behaviour that looks dishonest often turns out to be perfectly legitimate, so avoid jumping to conclusions or immediately confronting the suspect.

Instead, consult your legal adviser. If necessary, he or she will recommend the forensic accountancy services, in which case contact us for advice on what to do next.

Until you have proof of wrongdoing, exercise caution and carry on as usual. Keep any investigation discreet to avoid alerting the employee to the fact that they are under suspicion. Visit the employees page on a social networking website, it is surprising what personal indescretions individuals are prepared to reveal.

Develop a response strategy

It helps to have a clear policy for responding to cases of fraud or theft. In particular you need to answer the following questions:

Will you prosecute and/or take other disciplinary action in all cases, or will you decide on a case-by-case basis?
Will you deal with the matter publicly to convey the message that fraud and theft will not be tolerated or will you settle the matter privately to avoid publicity?

The most important thing is to be seen to be fair and even-handed, and of course to be acting within the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks.

Easy Accountancy

Easy Accountancy is the UK’s only national specialist accountancy firm for freelancers, sole traders and small businesses

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We don’t want our clients to be scared to contact us and potentially lose out on valuable tax saving advice. It's even more important when you first start out as you really need to set your business up in the best way possible. As a start up you’ll probably have loads of questions and will really appreciate the fact you can call your accountant as many times as you like without the fear of racking up large bills.

Our low cost, all-inclusive fixed-fee accountancy service includes unlimited access to your own accountant throughout the year, so you never need to worry about picking up the phone and then receiving a bill afterwards for the privilege, and covers all your business and personal tax affairs needs. All clients additionally receive:

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Provide proactive tax advice throughout the year

We’ve saved our clients up to half on their accountancy bills – if you’d like a quote, click on the quote me button to the right of this page. Alternatively, call us on 0500 234111 / 01442 275767 or email jessica@easyaccountancy.co.uk

We also have a money-back service guarantee - all of your telephone calls and emails will be answered on the same day, or we will refund your monthly fee (another first within the accountancy world).

To appoint us as your accountants, please fill in our Client Agreement Form online.

If you are a contractor working through a limited company then visit SJD Accountancy (our sister company) who specialise in providing tax advice and accountancy services for Limited Company contractors. You can also keep up to date by following the SJD Accountancy Twitter

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