Opinion | When staff label their crimes as fraud
Luxury handbags among the telltale signs for miscreant workers who feed a spending habit
Want to know if any of your workers are stealing from you? Note what sort of handbags they have.
An investigator friend of White Collar tells how a female boss in the city knew something was amiss in the company. The telltale signs were that all her young staff were toting luxury handbag brands such as Prada, Christian Dior or Chanel. They were too expensive for the boss herself to buy and she wondered how the young women who worked for her could afford them.
While these workers may have come from a rich family or had a wealthy boyfriend, the boss smelt something fishy and hired a commercial detective. The investigation confirmed the young workers were accepting bribes from suppliers to finance their shopping trips.
In another case, a junior staff member went on an expensive cruise that cost more than several months of his salary. This raised the eyebrows of his boss, who hired a commercial detective who found out he had stolen company money to pay for the trip.
Financial problems are always the reason staff steal company assets
According to Kelvin Ko, the managing director of commercial investigative firm Verity Consulting, when an employee has a spending habit well above his or her salary, this should set off warning flags that internal fraud may be occurring.
"Other red flags are that staff have very low morale or keep complaining the pay is too low, or when staff members have serious debt problems and keep on borrowing money from colleagues," Ko said.