Partner has used Work Credit Card for Personal Expenses!

[Charcol]

Hes been called in for a disciplinary meeting to explain himself.

I have advised him to co-operate and tell the truth as best as poss. Its several transactions, including cash withdrawals. Although he has never tried to claim them as a business expense to recoup the money from work, and has paid the monies back after use.

However, the policy is no personal expenses!

What are the best options to avoid dismissal? Has anyone witnessed or seen similar scenarios? Advise would be much appreciated. thanks!

Yeah withdrawing cash is a massive red flag! Because essentially he’s used company funds for…..something.
I think there is no mitigating it because the trust has gone, I’d prepare yourselves for him to be dismissed

An accidental transaction would be misconduct at worse but would likely result in a warning

Multiple transactions including cash withdrawals would be gross misconduct in my company and would very likely lead to dismissal unless there was very very good justification eg staying at a hotel for business purposes and their card machine went down but there would need to be evidence of that

Sorry to say but it is not a great position for him to be in

He's mis-used the company card, what a fool, he'll be lucky to get off with a slap across the wrists.

It would know what it was buying in that scenario because only receipted expenses would be reimbursed. There is no fraud if the set up is that you pay the balance and claim on expenses, but it might be against policy.

Well it begs the question why? I've done it completely accidentally once or twice where my work card has been attached to something I also use personally (parking app was one of them) but I've noticed immediately and just paid the company back, no issue beyond a raised eyebrow from whichever member of the accounts team has to reconcile my £2 cash payment against my credit card.

They may give him the opportunity to resign with pay in lieu of notice. He should talk to ACAS first.

Where's OP gone?

As others have said, this looks really bad as a) he's withdrawn cash and b) he's done it multiple times. As others on this thread have, I've done it once by accident when paying for a round of drinks in the pub when pissed and grabbing the wrong card- luckily I realised just as I tapped my card so managed to get a receipt so I could embarrassingly explain to the finance manager the next day! I felt lucky they didn't take my card off me then tbh.

With repeated incidents and no proof. or explanation of what he used the money for and no paper trail, I'd expect serious repercussions.

Take the lead in the meeting. Apologise immediately for a lack of judgement, stress that it was always paid from personal bank account and not claimed as expenses and offer his resignation.

It will be down to his manager/hr to decide whether or not to accept it but much better to resign than be fired.

How was he ‘paying it back’?

How would transaction work? I don’t think I could pay stuff of my company card. It would raise a flag immediately.

Any personal expenses would be taken from his wage, surely? Which means they must have known. For example if I want to hire a car for personal use o can hire one through our fleet team and then it comes out of my next wage.

He has been really dishonest. And is probably being dishonest to you.

Agree with comments that a one off mistake (or an emergency-my card wouldn't work and the wheel had fallen off the car and I was stranded, so I immediately rang my boss and told them I'd had to put it on the company card, then backed up with an email confirming I owe X from Y date) would probably be looked on favourably but multiple occasions suggests he just doesn't care, I'm sorry OP but as a previous Trade Union Official I don't fancy his chances here

Mistakes happen and I'd hope your finance manager laughed and said it's fine-because it was a clear mistake you owned up to immediately, and rectified

I think he'll be dismissed. What a stupid thing to do.

Doing it once or twice, fine. You can say it’s accidental. But if he’s doing this regularly and using his company credit card like an overdraft then he’s obviously doing it on purpose. It might help if he were honest about what the funds were used for. Or about any stressful situations he’s been under Many companies (especially banks) have policies for staff going through difficulty and if this is his first offence they may write it up as a final warning, take away his card, and allow him to stay.

Sorry OP, I know that isn't what you want to hear, but he will be lucky to get away with this. At best it shows a significant lack of judgment and as an employer I wouldn't be willing to retain an employee who I couldn't trust with company property.

Are you still there, OP? Lots of advice on here, and some questions.
I always wonder, when there's only one or two posts from the OP then nothing, whether the thread is genuine. Please come back and reassure us.

I’d be looking very carefully what he’s doing in any linked finance too as this is a huge red flag to me

Taking out cash from the company credit card for your own use? It's impossible to do that by accident and is clearly stealing. How can he have paid it back? It would need to go through the accounts department of his employer so they'd know immediately.
I honestly think he will be dismissed. Also, why was he so desperate for cash that he pinched it from his works credit card? Has he got a drug problem? Gambling? Prostitutes? Cash isn't really used very often for anything other than the black market nowadays.

The cash withdrawals are the problem.
Expense software doesn't like it
Before taxis took cards we had a £100 cash float and a balance limited credit card.
It would be gross misconduct in any company I have managed.

Of course, because when you're caught stealing from your employer you always get a pay rise 🫣🤣

Expense fiddling is so common that it is used as an excuse to get rid of people. You just trawl through the expense records in detail with great care.

Meta recently used it to thin out workers without needing to follow a redundancy or perfomance improvement process when they were caught using their meal allowance for non-food items.

I suggest he writes himself a statement, to read out, as he will forget on the day.
Full acceptance of what he has done, so sorry, didn't realise the gravity, he's never not paid money back, ever.

He will never, ever, do it again if given a second chance.
He could well get sacked.

I did this one single time by accident (put work debit card into a cash machine by accident, same PIN). I paid the money back straight away via bank transfer and sent a note to Accounts to tell them this. Surely if you do this once and put it right you'd then be sure never to do this again?

Someone can do this once by accident, immediately 'fess up, put it right, not do it again.

I could be wrong, but that seems very different to what happened here, which sounds very much like fraud.

Even if paid back it is essentially borrowing company money (for the period of time from when paid/withdrawn to repaid) which is a Benefit In Kind which can also land the company in problems with HMRC. And often there will be a bit of teaming and lading with it, whereby the cardholder does repay only to immediately rack up another outstanding balance so that it goes under the radar for a bit, but the amount owed builds up and who knows what their ultimate intention is regarding repayment. This is so calculating and dishonest that I almost think it worse.

I'd be getting rid of any employee who did this, whether real stupidity or feigned stupidity was the reason.

Your partner may get off with a slap on his wrists, dependent on his company, but he will never be viewed the same way by those across the details (although he probably has the staggering arrogance to think no one really understands what he was up to).

It's gross misconduct and he should be sacked. 100%