Little sister stealing from work

[mrsdgrohl]

My little sister (18) works in a franchised corner shop, it's a very quiet rural one and she works alone for 6 hours three days a week. She confessed to me last night that she's been struggling for money lately as she's spending all of hers on driving lessons and has been eating/drinking things from the shop with the intention to pay for it all when she had enough. She said it wasn't a massive haul, but the odd chocolate bar here, bottle of coke there, pack of crisps here..

She said she 'realised' yesterday it had been over 4 months and she hadn't paid any of it back. I asked her to estimate and she said probably around £50 worth of stuff at this point, but although she's always planned on paying it back, she hasn't even kept track of everything she's taken she's now crying that she's going to get caught. I went in to see her today and told her to pick up everything she can remember eating or drinking and scan it, she did and I made her pay the £35 for it all and then she put it all back on the shelves.

I don't buy for a second that this is all of it. I think she realised it was getting expensive and said that was all. I've never worked in retail so I have no idea how it works in regards to stock takes etc, is she likely to get pulled up if she hasn't been honest and there is more she's taken and not paid for? I'm furious at her and I've told our mum today who will be punishing her but I don't want her to get caught, she lives in a very small rural village and doesn't want to get marked as a thief. I'm happy to pay for anything else she's taken (she will be paying every penny back) but she's adamant she 'can't remember what else'

Is she likely to get caught for this? Or because it's (apparently) only around £50 or so and she's paid off £35 that anything that is noticed missing at stock take will be written off? I've left her there and told her to walk around shop and look at products try remember if she's had any of them and to write a list and I'll go back in and pay for all that but can guarantee she won't remember it all..

Shop owners do not do a full stock take everyday after cashing up the till.
I doubt very much it would be noticed at all tbh.

But it’s not in the shop because she already ate it

Well they do till checks and if they usually have £150 in the till [on average] and at the end of the working day there is £185.They will notice that.

The till will balance. The problem would be if they had already done a stock take and written off the items taken, they will now be up in the next stock take. They may put this down to human error.

At least if caught she has tried to rectify the situation. This must never happen again and if she does eat or drink anything pay for it straight away, print a receipt and stick it on the item. Getting caught stealing would have very serious effects on any future employment. I hope she realises this.

The till system may have stock levels on it, you say she scanned the items, so then you may be able to go into the items she can remember eating and drinking and check the stock levels.

I would be concerned she may also have been underinging things (not ringing items up and taking the money). So the till still balances, the stock is down.

Really durstarr really..?!
Or they'll just think a busier day?!
It's £35 not 3000 😂

She would do well to remember that this was the day a group of people visiting the area popped in to account for the extra money if that is a noticeable increase on usual takings for the time of day.
Unless there has been a full stocktake done since she started taking stuff but before it was paid for, no one can prove that it didn't all sell on the date it was rang through and paid for.

Hmm, this is a tricky one - in a bank, for example, they reconcile things every day, if you're down a tenner one day, then it suddenly appears a next day, it rings bells.

So, perhaps, someone is keeping an eye, this it would depend on stock takes, so being under by X amount, then, suddenly, out of the blue, over by that same amount, or similar, is just as 'dodgy' (sorry OP!)

Hold on to the fact that your sister came forward in the end, let go of the rest, if anybody else suspected something, I'm sure that they'd have let her go by now.

Of course the till will balance if the items have been rung through, the stocktake will be up but not by a huge amount and when it's up, we tend not to investigate as much as if it were down. Also I imagine it's spread over lots of items rather than just £35 worth of a particular chocolate bar (for example).

If they haven't noticed by now, they won't notice. I don't they do full stocktakes more than once a month (probably much less often, if at all). The only way she could be found out is if the owners checks the CCTV and sees her ringing things through the till with no customer present.

Sounds like she's learnt her lesson. I wouldn't reassure her too much though, let her worry to make sure it really sinks in.

@Fattymcfaterson Yes really.

Doesnt matter,they probably keep a better eye on it.Not like multiple people use the tills.

They will realise its the ops sister.

Does not matter if it was a pound.Something has the sister rattled.So either way sticky fingers in a workplace is not a good idea.

Small rural shops with a single employee do not do a daily stock take.

She's also lucky to have such a lovely non judgemental sis on her side, and in these case, contrary to what others have suggested - yes, £1 may equate to the moral stances of £1,000 - its the same principal - you can peel one potato, in theory, you can peel a sack of them - you can nick £1 (or conceal it, or whatever way you want to dress it up) you can nick £100

...at least her moral compass has kicked in, OP

Small rural shops with a single employee do not do a daily stock take.

I never said they did,but they have noticed which is why the ops sister is in a sweat.

“Today 19:41 greendale17

Your sister is a thief.”

What is the point in posts like this?

You’ve told your mum who will punish her?
In what way at 18?

@Littlechocola I've had a talk with her about how serious this is and said I'll help her try and make it right, but I don't live at home with her anymore and I want to make sure she learns from this. I've told mum so that she doesn't get away with it as such, shes a family oriented girl and hearing from mum that she's disappointed her should give her a kick up the arse to not do it again.

@dustarr73 I didn't just put £35 in the till, I scanned all the items she'd taken and eaten. So the £35 is accounted for. The stuff isn't still in the shop - she'd already eaten/drunk it. I just got her to grab everything she remembered taking so I could scan the packaging and then put it back. Both the items and the money should all be accounted for?

@mrsdgrohl I do understand that.But she didnt eat everything together.And its just an estimate.

Now something tipped them off,so what was it.Shes either done something else.

At the end of the day a small shop like that would probably notice things.They wouldnt be buying huge amounts like Tesco.So they only buy in smaller quanties.

They noticed it only happened on your sisters shift.

The till will be £35 up in comparison to the stock which is present. It’s gone in little amounts.

Was her confession a result of anyone senior to her saying something?

That's not how it works, haggis, unless there's a regular stock check, which there isn't.

Unless they have clear proof of theft the most that will happen is she will lose her job. What concerns me more is that your sister, given she is learning to drive, is 17/18 is left alone running a shop for 6 hours at a time. Not only is this illegal in multiple ways, how does she get a break, 30 minutes after 6 hours, away from the shop another legal requirement, what does she do for bathroom breaks? If she is 17 does the shop sell alcohol/cigarettes, if shes over 18 is she a personal licence holder? What risk assessments have been carried out, is she first aid trained? I'd be more worried your sister was being taken advantage of and put in an unsafe/unfit work environment.

I used to be in retail management training. My company had a number of small rural shops, usually newsagents. A cash up was done daily, the till was balanced at the end of the week, also a cigarette stock take was done at the end of the week. A full stock check was done quarterly.

It sounds like the shop has an epos system, so chances are if your sister has been doing this for a while they will already know someone is stealing. When we had shops that we're losing stock we would put covert cameras in. I lost count of the number if times we caught employees stealing. It was usually those that you would least expect it from.
We always prosecuted. Please persuade your sister to leave and get a job where she can't steal. If she gets caught and the police are called, her future career prospects will be ruined. A criminal record for theft isn't something anyone wants on their cv

We have a small business , and realised one of our staff was stealing from the snack stock
( we do have cctv )
He managed to get through £11 of mars bars , Coca Cola , ice cream etc in a 4 hour shift
I think she has widely underestimated how much she stole
Luckily our employee left of his own accord once he realised he’d been caught out ( just before he got sacked , he’d had warnings before )

Sugarplumfairy65 and Doilooklikeatourist would you leave a 17 year old alone for 6 hours serving alcohol without a break or access to refreshments and toilet facilities?