Boss stealing from company: I'm afraid to be the whistle blower, what to do?

Hi all,
Sorry I didn’t add in a few more replies up to now, I don’t have much access to 'other' websites bar work ones.

Thanks for all the advice and I also spoke to an accountant who explained to me how an audit in the company might not pick something like this up without being told to specifically look for it. I'm no where near the accounts dept so don’t even know if they get audited.
Anyway, main point. Did I do anything? No. I would so like to point it out to management but it’s the fear of what'll happen to me after it comes to light.
They could do nothing and my boss will make my life a living hell?
They could get rid of boss, get new lad in and say watch yourself there, there's a whistleblower there, and that would make this place unbearable.
They could move me to another location, which is possible and one of the posters pointed out (I have other commitments that means I need to stay closer to where I am).
the only time I thought of it was anonymously and pass on the few bits of evidence i have but again we work in a small team and i wouldn’t like any of my co workers to be put under scrutiny at my expense.

Anyway, its always in the back of my mind, maybe if it notice it going on and on i might just say hold on a minute and enough is enough, but unfortunately I will go against my morals and say nothing. Hopefully he will get too greedy and he will be caught on his own steam, but for now I’ll just sit and wait.
I promise i'll let ye know of anything that happens.
 
Hi Billysharp, for what its worth I think you have made the right decision. At the end of the day you have to do whats right for you as only you will have to live with the consequences.
 
Cashstrapped i think thats pretty inaccurate advice...this situation potentially affects numerous people. I think its a great pity that billy has chosen not to bother to do anything. It is his choice and im sure he has spent a great deal of time thinking it over though. All it takes for evil to prevail if for good men to do nothing.

I hope it doesnt come back to bite some day. I think always do the right thing and what is supposed to be will be. Billy could be missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime here to show his loyalty to the company and dedication to his job...honesty/integrity etc... Maybe cashstrapped is right in one way...Billy will have to live with his decision/consequences of doing nothing also..he will be looking over his shoulder forever...what if his boss thinks billy knows and decides to frame him someway ...they both claim expences work in the same office etc....he may be able to get rid of him other ways...make his life difficult? even though he hasnt done anything...what will his defence be ...no its really my boss who is stealing...ive known for ages ...look at the proof??what will his employers think of him then? that he was in on it?that he did nothing?etc....I would value a clear conscience higher than that.anyway thats just something more to mull over...
 
money man said:
Cashstrapped i think thats pretty inaccurate advice...this situation potentially affects numerous people. I think its a great pity that billy has chosen not to bother to do anything. It is his choice and im sure he has spent a great deal of time thinking it over though. All it takes for evil to prevail if for good men to do nothing.
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Moneyman the reply I gave to Billy was speaking from personal experience. I have in confidence gone to my senior Manager regarding something similar which was part of my job, he followed it up alright, with the person who I had brought the evidence against. How do I know you might ask, mainly becauses this person came to me in our open plan office, spoke quiet loudly and asked if I ever had a problem with his expenses in the future could I bring it to his attention before anyone else as there may be a valid reason for certain purchases. It turned out this was an agreement between two Senior Managers within the Company that was a 'perk' he could purchase things like family holidays and put them through as a business expense. Would I flag it again, hell no, I now have a Senior colleague who doesn't speak to me only grunts, I have a boss who feels I'm responsible for flagging something with him which now puts him in a position of knowing something he'd rather not know.

I think Billy may have covered himself off by bringing it to the attention of a Company Accountant, I think it's more about what he does now he has noticed. Going forward I would suggest any purchases that Billy makes like the example he used, he take copies of for his own records. Again I would say if it's not part of Billy's job to steer clear, you don't know what agreements are in place and if he is that greedy he will eventually get caught. The way I see it he's damned if he doesn't and he's damned if he does so it's the lesser of two evils.
 
Billysharp,

If you want, you could ring up the company in question (where the inaccurate expenses were for) and ask to get a statement of account. This would list out all the invoices outstanding and the correct amounts. Then you could go to accounts payable & leave this on their desk (make sure no one notices you doing this. When accounts payable are doing their reconciliations they would notice that the invoices are not correct.

However, if the company pays these invoices as they become due, then the statement would not show anything. In this case you would need to ring accounts from the company in question and ask for a 'transaction history' for the last 3 or 4 months. You could give accounts Mr/Ms X & they could post it in. This would provide info to accounts payable and it would be up to them to highlight it.

Then at least you would feel you are doing something but you are not being caught in the crossfire, as this could be a case of 'shoot the messenger'.

Good Luck
 
buzybee said:
Billysharp,

If you want, you could ring up the company in question (where the inaccurate expenses were for) and ask to get a statement of account. This would list out all the invoices outstanding and the correct amounts. Then you could go to accounts payable & leave this on their desk (make sure no one notices you doing this. When accounts payable are doing their reconciliations they would notice that the invoices are not correct.

However, if the company pays these invoices as they become due, then the statement would not show anything. In this case you would need to ring accounts from the company in question and ask for a 'transaction history' for the last 3 or 4 months. You could give accounts Mr/Ms X & they could post it in. This would provide info to accounts payable and it would be up to them to highlight it.

Then at least you would feel you are doing something but you are not being caught in the crossfire, as this could be a case of 'shoot the messenger'.

Good Luck
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Are these not expenses claimed and therefore will not show on any staement of account? The invoices are not paid directly by the company but are expensed by the employee in question hence the "doctoring".

BB Do you work as an accountant?
 
Thought the dishonest employee was ordering goods for his/her own use & charging it to the company.
 
He is doing both:
· Ordering goods and then when they arrive they end up in his car before they end up in the store room. They arrived posted for his attention
· Doctoring receipts, was thinking of asking the company that he doctors the receipts for a couple of months statements, cos sometimes he puts in same receipt in twice and deletes the ID number on the receipt page. The receipt are all hand written ones he gets from companies
And as moneyman says, clear conscience, the option I picked isn’t what I want, its not usually like me not to do something like this. My friends outside work usually ask me for advice on various things and I usually give it honestly and as straight as i can (even if its not what they want to hear) so being quiet on this is not usual for me, I don’t like myself for doing it, but right now I cannot deal with the **** that could come at me if I whistle blow.
 
Could you perhaps anonymously advise the company auditors that something may be amiss. Explain your suspicions and ask that they look at it during the audit.
That way if they come in to check and find something it will look like they are the ones who caught him out and not you.
 
The Pool Boy said:
Could you perhaps anonymously advise the company auditors that something may be amiss. Explain your suspicions and ask that they look at it during the audit.
That way if they come in to check and find something it will look like they are the ones who caught him out and not you.
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That's the way I'd go. Just piont the auditor in the direction and let him pose the questions.
 
Hi everyone,
A bit of good news anyway. There is a god!
My boss didn’t turn up for work on Monday and our head boss old us on Tuesday that he wont be back due to disciplinary reasons. Thank do for that and we didn’t have to report him, which i felt under pressure to do. He must have got too greedy or made a big mistake. It puts my faith back into accountants anyway! Hope it was this he got fired for, but at least we don’t have a thief in our team any more. Thanks for the replies
 
I hope that the company hasnt suffered massive losses/damages to reputation etc. And that this thief doesnt cost some people their jobs due to the business/plant/office being badly run/unprofitable etc.
 
I hope they go after the money off him. The start of september was when we noticed!! He could have been at it from the sept before. I agree, some of us got poor enough pay increases last year which he pocketed. The worst thing was we heard from another source that he got fired from a previous job (about 8 years ago) for doing the exact same thing!! Hr werent doing their job hiring him. We know that we are all prob being watched like mad now but we dont care, whats left are honest and have nothing to hide and the morale has picked up even though our workload increased.
 
billysharp said:
I hope they go after the money off him. The start of september was when we noticed!! He could have been at it from the sept before. I agree, some of us got poor enough pay increases last year which he pocketed. The worst thing was we heard from another source that he got fired from a previous job (about 8 years ago) for doing the exact same thing!! Hr werent doing their job hiring him. We know that we are all prob being watched like mad now but we dont care, whats left are honest and have nothing to hide and the morale has picked up even though our workload increased.
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Good news. He was stealing and should have been sacked.
 
You must do what is right in your view,I think it is your duty as a worker in the company who pay your wages to inform HR of this issue.If it is found out down the road that you knew all about the stealing and never said anything maybe they could be in their right to sack you. Alot of big companies when they find out staff are stealing from them actually do not call the police but rather let them leave so not to bring a bad image too the company,this I have seen throughout the years.It can be much most simple to give them a choice of either leave or we will call in the police,they usually just leave quitely.
 
Would the Gardai actually get involved in a workplace theft situation if it was not on a large scale or clearly fraud etc. or might they not consider it a civil matter and outside of their remit? Like if I let the burglar into my house willingly and then he stole my stuff?
 
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