Crime In The Workplace

Employee theft and fraud are two of the largest areas of loss each year for commercial establishments.  Retail annual losses are measured each year by the University of Florida (Gainesville) and they show alarming rates in employee theft. 

"Over the past three years (1999-2002), U.S. retailer's total losses from employee theft have risen 34% to $12.85 Billion per year, while shoplifting losses have risen 14% to $10.15 Billion per year."

Security Research Project
University of Florida at Gainesville

Robinson Investigations has helped many retail outlets, both large and small, in various sectors of the economy to stop and subsequently prevent employee theft.   We have a number of different methods which we can utilize to discover how thefts are occurring, and who is behind them.  These methods include:

Our experience has taught us that there are definite criminal patterns that can be uncovered in a workplace that is experiencing loss.  One of the most difficult patterns for an employer to come to terms with, is that one employee who successfully steals, usually leads others to the same behaviour in a short amount of time.  This then increases the problem by several orders of magnitude, depending upon how many employees become involved.

Another pattern that we have observed is that some employees, who work with various Point of Sale systems each and every day, develop knowledge about the record keeping methodologies and cash register records that an employer may be unaware of.  This allows the employee to steal without an employer being able to accurately define what is happening, how it is being done, and who is doing it.

A recent example of this situation was at a retail gas outlet that sold a large volume of cigarettes daily.  The employer knew that there was a shortage of cigarettes at the end of each month when an inventory was completed, but throughout the month the inventory levels would balance.  As it turned out, 5 of 7 employees had developed a method of stealing cash by ringing in false returns and voided sales.  This allowed the day-to-day inventory to balance, but of course the month end inventory would be askew.   It turned out that employees were stealing approximately $100 per day using these methods.  A 6-day investigation uncovered the pattern and identified the employees involved.  Because the employer had insurance against this type of loss, we were able to prove to the insurer the amount of loss over a 6-month period and the employer recovered a significant amount of lost revenue as well as the cost of the investigation.

It is also important to realize that an internal theft problem occurs after sales, and therefore is a direct loss from profit, meaning that in a 10% margin market, a $1000 theft actually translates to losses of $10,000 in sales.

Contact us today for a FREE estimate of what it would cost to solve your problem!

Contact our office at (306) 244-2992 or email us at:

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