Finance Manager "accidentally" paid £80,000 into her own bank account!!

Someone made a comment about making sure you have a job to go to before whistle blowing. This is good advice.

Sadly, despite all the assurances that whistle blowers will be protected, this is often not the case. So, like when you put in a grievance, you need to know exactly what you are getting yourself into and thr potential ramifications for you.

Then again, as I said earlier, these amounts (that you know about) are enough to put small businesses under so there is that risk anyway.

Has your pay ever been changed by her? Do you know other colleagues who've also suffered who'd be willing to speak out with you? If you can get enough people involved, you could collectively go to the MD and formally request an independent audit of the wages system because she messes with your pay so often that you are concerned that your NI contributions aren't being correctly submitted which could affect your state pensions – which is a very real concern given how slapdash you say she is. The MD should take that v. seriously but if they don't, just say they've left you with no choice but to go to HMRC to check with them that the NI tallies. You can report your company to HMRC if you think there are discrepancies.

My thoughts were "who's she shagging" 🤣

Is there a regulatory body your company belongs to that you could report the situation to?
Possibly put in a formal complaint about anything she is doing that directly affects you ie pay, charging timesheets - facts not hearsay from other people.
Or even the police about potential fraud/theft?

The only issue is the wages. if everyone stared complaining everytime their wages were wrong, someone will have to act.

A near miss on a scam means it was stopped and it is up to the boss or board to decide if the process was incorrect, cyber security or other security needed updating or similar.

The transfer means the processes are not secure or not adequately checked.

Other than the wages being altered, this is a work issue around processes, security and accountability, which is down to the boss.

Find a new job, OP. Working with someone like this is difficult and the frustration and resentment will only build. That, coupled with seeing management not take any action… It would simply stress me out too much. I have no respect for an organisation that suffers fools easily.

This is wrong on so many levels!

Somebody should be keeping an eye on the books to make sure everything tallies, no misappropriation of funds is going on and all “mistakes” are rectified. The accounts should be signed off and submitted as appropriate, any taxes payable to HMRC as necessary etc.

Secondly if you are a professional/chartered member of any professional body then you are supposed to abide by the rules of conduct of the body. What qualifications does she have?? She should be reported and hopefully would be struck off.

Thirdly, intention to permanently deprive, or “stealing” should to be reported to the Police.

Before you blow the whistle, make sure you have a job to go to as the messenger with bad news usually gets the boot first and make sure you gather all the evidence you can so that you are not the one thrown under the bus.

I wonder what she's doing when she's alone for that hour before everyone else gets in.

I doubt the 80k was an error. Regularly coming in to work early despite not needing to or being asked to is also a massive red flag for possible fraud.

@Babooshka1234 this is very worrying!!!! she should not be using a business computer to do her own banking and she should not be using her phone to do the business banking either!! she actually is behaving very suspiciously. the bank usually control the amounts of cash which can be transferred to another account in one transaction. she must have done the overide specifically to enable any kind of accident like that!! why is she going in early? I used to pay the wages at my husbands business. the wages were made by the accountant. some business have a wages office but I certainly dont think she will also be in charge of "doing" the wages before paying them to employees!! the managing director needs to get a tighter grip on this. I have seen too many smallish businesses going to the wall due to embezzlement by an employee. in the past few years a local council had an employee embezzle well over a million pounds to cover his gambling debts!!!

everywhere I worked in banking or retail anyone who was suspected or caught transferring money to personal accounts would be suspended with police brought in. Staff had to report any financial discrepancies no matter how high up they were.

Reckon she’s shagging any of the management team? This was the situation at my old firm. Highly incompetent worker, is now chief of staff (and still in carnal knowledge of the CEO)

It's this woman not this women. It's also independent.
If I seem an arse, it's because I see women for woman far too often.

Folk suggesting she should whistleblow - to who exactly given that managers already know??

OP - you won't necessarily know about any actions taken against the person, just that they haven't been sacked. You are not responsible for managing her performance.

I would be suggesting a full forensic audit to see whether she is systematically scamming the company. There are many ways to do this if you have access to the bank account. The fact she starts work early is a massive red flag to me. Not because she is claiming overtime but because she may be alone in the office to carry out all sorts of stuff.

Secondly the wage manipulation is very dodgy. It would be very easy to manipulate the hours and redirect money into her own wages.

I speak from experience. It has amazed me, over the years of owning a business, the lengths people will go to steal from you.

A friend of mine discovered his long serving and supposed loyal employee, had stolen over 1 million pounds over a 30yr period. Her DH was a business owner so her apparently well healed lifestyle didn’t ring alarm bells. She was very clever but ultimately became sloppy and the accountant spotted anomies leading to a full audit. Sadly, before any legal action could take place, she committed suicide.

It happens, so frequently, in most industries. All that companies can do is put in place is easy to use auditing tools. We have had everything from pinching toilet roll to outright theft of cash from the business. Some very complex others less so.

Isn't changing time sheets an illegal detachment of earnings ?

I’m astonished that any organisation would keep this woman on! Messing about with other people’s wages is the worst of it all, though. I used to deal with things that affected monthly salaries and I was acutely conscious over getting it right. How dare she just change stuff at will! Lots of people live payday to payday and she could massively affect them.

Watch your pay like a hawk, OP. And maybe be on the lookout for something else?

Accounts being linked is really annoying - community group accounts get linked to your personal account and when you stop being a signatory it cancels your own access to your banking app. You then have to sort that all out which is a faff.

It's crap. And crap in part due to the apps they make.

Banks suck generally at lots of things.
My lloyds account sent me an email which Gmail says:
Be careful with this message.
This message isn't authenticated and the sender can't be verified. Be careful when clicking links, downloading attachments, or replying with personal information.

It's a real email from the bank - but clearly their security isn't up to scratch.
(I know this bit is a bit irrelevant but it seemed better to tuck it here than simmer about how annoying I find it!)

point out to the MD and other managers that if she is messing with the wages, they are facing a massive ET problem.

Do the staff know she is doing this?

Shes going to bankrupt the company. It sounds like a small company to £150k would significantly impact on it's viability. The £80k sounds like potential fraud. The app sounds like very bad judgement to start with but surely after the first mistake you'd stop using it?

If there a professional body you could whistle-blower to?

Normally Id say, keep your nose out of it but this is going to have significant impact on lots of people.

if she were changing my wages due to changing my clocking in and out times she would feel the full wrath of me and my union.

The staff need to take this up with their unions/lawyers/ACAS.

This is so serious. Nobody in finance accidentally pays themselves 80K. They need to leave immediately as they are a major risk to the business. Please whistle blow to the managing director.

I would consider securing another job before you blow the whistle. I volunteered for a charity where the fiddling of the books went all the way to the top. My manager had a quiet word with a few of us one day and suggested we all step down before it all came out. (In the end they got away with it because there were too many people involved and the main perpetrator had information on all of them).

She changes the pay for employees? Does she update the tax on the new pay? Does the business owe money to HMRC because monthly payroll has been filed incorrectly?
This alone needs a full audit since she started working for the company. I would advise the business owner to flag this up with the accountants ASAP.
Near miss on a scam, she needs to undergo a proper IT training session with a qualified IT provider.
Using the same app in the same phone for work and personal logins is absolutely a no-no. She should be provided with a work phone which she can only use for business purposes only.
In fact, the business needs to seriously consider the risk level here and sort out all the IT security, software and end user responsibilities.
At that point in time, if she makes one more mistake she would need to go.

I’m curious how the 80k was discovered and whether or not this has happened before…

agree with pp that you should look for another job because this is a badly run company that may well run into difficulties soon

eta I suspect there may well be some interesting issues with HMRC if she is running payroll like this