Corporate theft
Published: 31 March 2008
More than three-quarters of UK employees have stolen from their current or previous employer, a new study has found.
The survey by Salgado Investigations, a company of London- based private investigators, found that individuals steal an average of £920 worth of items throughout their working life, costing the economy nearly £432m each year.
Among the stolen items detailed were large sums of cash, furniture and computer equipment. Stationery was not included in the study.
Even from the 22% who said they have not stolen anything, 57% said they would if they thought they would get away with it. The biggest deterrent is video monitoring, with 38% saying this would stop them.
"These stats make for pretty scary reading," says Jorge Salgado-Reyes, founder of Salgado Investigations. "Companies are doing little to stop thefts of this kind, with very few having deterrents such as monitored CCTV or robust asset management systems in place."
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The following comments have been posted in response to this article:It's not exactly 'Enron II' . So employees are stealing, on average, £20 per year. I cannot think of anything more trivial!
Tony Taylor 04 Apr 2008
This appears to be a scare tactic from a surveillance company, the purpose of which is to generate business for itself.
A company operating sound management practices that empowers staff will not suffer such losses - which would become readily apparent through measures set to avoid the 'one person error' as part of its QA procedures.
Employing CCTV cameras to check whether or not staff steal a pencil sharpener would be accepted as astatement by employess that they were not trusted and not part of the team.
The loss to the business would be those additional accommodations and considerations that all good staff impart for the good of the business which are beyond their remit or working hours.
Such measures, if employed as suggested by this surveillance company would, result in far more serious losses to good and well run businesses - the loss of their core staff!
Peter Thomson 04 Apr 2008
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