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!

Don’t think op is coming back. I did a hearing for this a few months ago and outcome was dismissal. Like this case it was multiple times with no email to manager to explain. Also couldn’t explain why (may have been able to be lenient in financial distress) and showed no remorse.

It is against company policy though. They are likely to dismiss.

in other threads you've a wife?

It really doesn’t.

People saying be apologetic, or play the mental health card or play the poverty one, it does not work like that. It’s not his mum and dad. It’s his employer. If they’ve fired before for it. Then they need to fire again, as otherwise the first employee has a case against them, in addition, if they don’t fire, it opens the door to all their employees doing it, withdrawing money as they see fit, and just being all sorry or whatever and they can’t dp anything. A union rep can’t help if you breach policy to this extent.

it’s a zero tolerance unless it is clear it’s a mistake and a one off, that they escalated as soon as they knew. This is a different animal and I also shall be very surprised if they do not move to immediate dismissal.

If I was him I’d hope for the best but prepare realistically for the worst and start getting cv;s out there, as they will likely not pay notice as it is gross misconduct. In that case they aren’t entitled to any notice. It’s hand your gear in and goodbye. He also needs to prepare to ask for a basic reference and allow him to resign if it becomes apparent they are dismissing. Otherwise he’s screwed for other jobs,

Yes, clearly he’s been using it on purpose to supplement his personal expenditure,

Very unlikely. The CC isn’t there to help the employees cashflow and there are strict rules about no personal expenditure. He has also been found out for what he has done, it’s dishonest and essentially it’s fraud. Depending on what industry he works in it could also impact references.

Used to never understand this rule, after all if it was paid back before interest charges were incurred, where was the harm? But I now see it is no different than dipping into the corporate bank account and borrowing money with the intention of paying it back - even if you do pay it back, because you are drawing on the company’s credit facility not your own personally agreed and secured facility, you have still been guilty of embezzlement.

It’s a sackable offence at my DH’s office. A mistake, especially if noted and reported to management immediately MIGHT be let go after a formal process, but repeated errors and withdrawing cash? Sorry, OP, but this really doesn’t look good.

i do this about once a year (some years i accidently swipe my personal card when it should be a business expense, other times i've used my business card for a personal thing). I've always noticed the same week and flagged it on the system/explained, and we're talking 5 times in 5-6 years.

that's a very different thing than regular, repeated breaches of policy, including taking out cash.

my employer would likely let go of employees that were found to be doing this, even as understanding as they are, there's a limit to what being absent minded (which we all are, at times) means.

Like you've said, telling the truth is his only chance.

I think the only chance he has is if he has a gambling or drug problem that he owns up to and asks for time off or support to deal with it. And even then, he will only get lucky if he is a brilliant employee and works for a brilliant company who may also consider changing his role.

I spent £250 on a company credit card by accident once. I confessed straight away and arranged to pay it back as soon as I could (I wanted to do it immediately but had to wait until next pay day for them to deduct it from my salary). It was an absolutely shit company to work for with an absolute tyrant of a bullying boss, but I didn't get in any trouble for that, presumably because I was proactive in contacting them about the mistake and not waiting for the bill to come in.

The fucking awful irony is that I had spent the money on a starter kit for one of those goddam awful should be illegal MLM schemes, because I was trying desperately to leave the company 😂(I was young and naïve)

If he works in finance or the regulated sector in any shape or form, dishonesty and lack of integrity will mean his licence/authorisation to practice is at risk of being revoked. The employer, who is also likely to be regulated, will not give him any chances, sack him for misconduct and will probably have a duty to report him to the regulator.

Basically, if he works in financial services, he is screwed. But I assume he would know that anyway.

I presume he does not work in the regulated sector.

Yeah, at Meta, the guy earned $400K a year and was shown the door. But in the US, it is much easier to sack people anyway.

I feel really sorry for them, I suspect this is something that was done due to financial need, but which is likely to cause much worse financial hardship for the family due to likely dismissal.

I don’t think OP is coming back because it’s about them. Looking at their previous posts, he’s a male, with a wife, and a “past” gambling addiction also, very recent heavy debt (in a debt recovery plan)
I think it’s obvious what’s been going on, OP, if you do come back to this thread, please seek help.

The harm is that if personal expenses are put on the credit card, then they are considered the costs of the company and need to be recorded as such.

Company's have no intention, not should thru, allow employees touse the card for person use and then have to sold out the expenses separately. It is a big issue.

Mistakes happen on a one off basis, sure, but it's very clear this wasn't a one off mistake.

One of the tasks in a previous job as a Finance Manager was to oversee and manage the use of company credit cards.
Occasionally cards were accidentally used for a one off personal item and these would be swiftly repaid. Sometimes the employee would raise this before I saw the statements come in and would repay it there and then with an apology. I used to overlook these as employee oversight provided that repayment was prompt.
However I did have one instance where repayment was not made with a debt building up over a period of a couple of months. When I looked at the statement, the purchases being made were mainly adult clothing and childrens' items, so very much personal and possibly deliberate use of the card to cover a personal shortfall.
I raised this with the individual who repeatedly promised repayment but it never happened so I then went to her line manager, who did nothing because he didn't want to confront his employee (WTF ! ). This left me having to report the issue to the Finance Director.
HR and the FD then had a meeting with the employee and me - it turned out that the employee had financial issues that her husband wasn't aware of. We took the card away from her and set her up with a repayment plan and a written agreement which she had to sign in case she left our employment before paying back the debt. It was eventually sorted and paid back in full.
With OP's husband's situation, withdrawal of cash would be a red flag and possibly indicate personal use and hiding purpose of expenditure. If I was the employee in this situation I would be grovelling and expect a warning at least. Honesty is definitely the best policy here. As a safeguard, his company should be barring the option of withdrawing cash on company cards as is the norm.

I'm saying it's not necessarily fraudulent just because it happened multiple times. My pissed colleague used his company credit card many times to get an uber home from the pub. Each time was a genuine error, when he went through the receipts he realised. Obviously the difference here is the cash withdrawal.

Thanks for comments guys. Been a long day!!

Firstly, I didn't know about it. He told me when Given notice of the upcoming hearing.

He does have an exemplary record and no history of any issues at work.

He never tried to claim any of the personal expenses but I don't think that has much weight.

I pray they give him benefit of doubt and a final warning. He knows he's been stupid, and I can't repeat it enough. Just a sad state of affairs.

We will soon know his fate! 😥

Glad someone else noticed.

Not when cash has been taken out.

Ah, so has he used the company credit card because all his own are frozen due to the debt recovery plan?

I suppose it depends on the type of employer and his desirability or otherwise to his employer. Many employers would just instantly dismiss for gross misconduct but if he is an otherwise valuable employee and the matter is regarded as a one off he might keep his job but with a final warning/possible loss of credit card privileges.

So are you still gambling @Charcol ?

Doesn’t look good. Once, or even twice, can be seen as a mistake, especially if you own up straight away and pay it back.

Multiple times, and done in secret, is deliberate (even though money paid back).