Employee Theft

Addiction is a big factor is some shoplifters’s lives.  They steal to then sell the stolen merchandise to be able to purchase drugs and alcohol.  Employees with a drug addiction problem are dangerous to a retail store, specially those employees that are given a position of power, or have some type of freedom with merchandise, cash or even the security of the store.

Employees that feel as deserving employees that are not being properly compensated can be a liability to a retail store as well.  Anger, bad attitudes, and eventually theft can be a big problem for the store where they are employed.

Retailers and employers in the United States and around the globe loose billions of dollars to shoplifting and employee theft every year. Periodic inventory of employees, merchandise and security of the store are not only necessary but imperative to the health of the business. 

If as an owner, any part of the proper management of the store is left unattended, the results can be catastrophic.

For more about this and other topics follow the links below.


Your Loyal, Hardworking, and Intelligent Employee Might Be Stealing From Your Business

Most perpetrators are middle-aged, longtime employees who never take vacation, says new study.

Last June, Linda Clark, a 68-year-old bookkeeper, who worked for a credit union in Iowa, plead guilty to embezzling almost $2.5 million from her employer between 1978 until she resigned in 2015.

The SCICAP Credit Union in Chariton, Iowa, had to liquidate due to Clark’s 37-year-long scheme, during which she diverted small sums of money into her bank account as well as those of her children.

Clark fits the profile of the average embezzler, according to a studythat looked at over 400 embezzlement cases in federal court, conducted by insurance provider Hiscox. The study found the average embezzler to be a small-business, middle-aged employee who works in the accounting and finance department. Perps were female in 41 percent of the cases.

Clark’s scheme went on longer than average, but the majority of schemes, 28.7 percent, go on for five years with an average theft amount of $2.2 million. For schemes that last 10 years, the average loss hits $5.4 million.


Employee theft cost US businesses an average of $1.13 million in losses, according to 2017 Hiscox Embezzlement Study™

NEW YORK, NY, Aug. 23, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Hiscox, the international specialist insurer, today released the 2017 Hiscox Embezzlement Study™, an examination of employee theft in the US. The findings reveal that US businesses impacted by employee theft lost an average of $1.13 million last year. Small and mid-sized companies (fewer than 500 employees) continue to be disproportionally victimized by employee theft, representing approximately 68 percent of cases.

This is the third annual Hiscox Embezzlement Study, which examines employee theft cases that were active in the US federal court system in 2016.

“There is a necessary level of trust between employees and their employer that is required of successful businesses,” said Doug Karpp, Crime & Fidelity Product Head at Hiscox. “When there is a breach in that trust because an employee or executive steals, it can have a significant impact on the entire organization both financially and emotionally. Business owners and executives need to make the shift from blind trust to intelligent trust to ensure they are able to spot and prevent employee theft.”


 

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