If you suspect your business is victim of corporate fraud/ white collar crime, you should consider consulting a loss prevention investigator.
Wikipedia defines white-collar crime as “a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation”. We have found that this kind crime is not just reserved for the Senior Management of a business or retail establishment. People frequently involved in white-collar crime include Department Heads, Assistant Managers and Managers.
Employees at this level of management have access to inventory, cash, bookkeeping records and deposits. They can make changes to inventory and records and are in fact expected to do so in a genuine business situation. Because of this access and trust there are employees that end up committing white collar crime by voiding sales, modifying the accounting records, stealing inventory and depositing checks to their own account.
How can an employer protect it self from white collar crime? To begin with the hiring process must be designed to screen out candidates that have high-risk backgrounds. Some of these include:
- Termination from a previous job for theft.
- Poor credit history. If a person cannot manage their own money do you really want them managing yours? There are some exceptions such as a severe medical problem. But beyond those types of issues a poor credit record tells you how they manage their life.
- Traffic tickets beyond the occasional speeding ticket. Drunk driving, reckless or careless driving and frequent accidents tell you yet again more about how the person conducts themselves.
- Criminal histories also give us a window into a person’s mindset. I am not talking about the check they bounced in college for dry cleaning. Domestic violence, assaults, drunk and disorderly type incidents show that a person is not in control of themselves. And of course convictions for serious crimes such as murder, kidnapping and rape not only show us that the person is out of control but is a high-risk liability for an employer. If you hire someone like this and they commit any crime against your employees or customers and you will most likely be held liable.
- Employment testing with one of the many employment-screening tools that sort out people that are prone to the issues above are very effective.
- Drug testing
- Companies should conduct multiple interviews by more than one management team member skilled in pre-employment interviewing.
- Check references. This tends to get down played but clearly has merit. Require references with teacher’s previous supervisors, co-workers, etc beyond the ones that they list on their resume.
Protect your self by being proactive. Remember, white-collar crime is never, ever going away.
For more information what a loss prevention investigator can do for your potential issue, go here: White-Collar Crime or call 1.770.426.0547
