My colleague is fiddling expenses

[Goodgirl7]

My colleague is fiddling expenses. She takes a weekly trip to london to see her boyfriend and claiming the hotel and dinners as client expenses. She will join calls etc but do it from her hotel room. I know this for certain as she has told me. I don’t think this is right and close enough to having her hand in the till! Do I shop her anonymously?

By telling you she has made you complicit, so yes I think you do need to tell. If it comes out that you knew all along it won't look good.

Is she actually seeing clients and having dinner with them until such hour as she'd need to stay over nearby, and getting to see the boyfriend is a perk and a reason to arrange so many client visits, or is the hotel completely unnecessary for work?

Former may well be fine unless the meetings don't all need to go on so late and need a hotel, latter is taking the piss and I'd ask your manager what clients needed her there.

It could be fine - my job involves travel and I was asked if there were any cities I'd like to go to regularly, so one could say I visit my brother on expenses each month.

I think killing 2 birds is fine but she is going specifically to see him, not to see clients.

I would stay well out of it personally speaking. If she brings it up again tell her you never heard it ( you don't want to know). Deny all knowledge if it ever comes out. You never know the expenses might be legitimate.

By telling you she has made you complicit, so yes I think you do need to tell. If it comes out that you knew all along it won't look good

I don't agree. Just because this colleague "claims" to have told the OP does not mean the OP heard or registered what was said. And given the colleague is being highly dishonest, their word is hardly going to be taken as gospel truth.

I would not get embroiled in this situation. Let them get on with it and distance yourself from their wrong doing, so you aren't in anyway associated with it.

I am wanting to go for a managerial position next year which will mean I could have to sign off on her expenses. I’d rather not not be in that position if she is still doing it...

Wouldn't her line manager who signs off the expenses know if she was with clients and if the expenses are genuinely business?
If not, they should.
If you become responsible for signing off her expenses next year, it becomes your responsibility to check and challenge them where necessary.
For now, I would assume she was joking about having all expenses paid trips with her boyfriend on the company (I often hear jokes about what people put on expenses - I work in finance) and avoid any future conversations with her around expenses. In some respects, I agree with the other posters who say stay out of it.
The second option is to have a private word with whoever is signing off her expenses. Explain what you have heard, and say you are not sure if there is any truth in it...... it then becomes their responsibility to find out!

It's all No Win.
I'd write down the options & work thru them to decide.
My gut feeling is that I'd tear a strip off her & tell her she's put me in a terrible position. Say I'm going to assume that she's stopped completely but if I hear any more evidence that she hasn't then I'm going to report her.

Maybe if I worked thru all the other options I'd come up with something better, but I have a gut feeling that since it's all lose-lose, above is what I'd end up doing, would put me in the most "my conscience is clear" position.

Thanks everyone. We’re in sales at a big global company and we’re trusted to make sure our expenses are fair and it’s only if we’re way above the average that we will get questioned. I say this is her “boyfriend” but it is actually an ex colleague of ours who moved there and she is seeing him behind her long term fiancés back and putting it on expenses as her fiancé would notice the spending. She is using it as a convenient way to cheat IMO.

You'll actually be in a much stronger position if you have to sign off her expenses, than you are currently, becaus you have no authority over her and can only sit and watch by as she claims fraudulently.

When it's your name on the dotted line, you can scrutinise to your heart's content and refuse to sign anything you don't like the look of.

Cross that bridge if & when you come to it. Ref her bf etc, sounds messy don't get involved. It may backfire, just get on with your job & keep your eyes on your promotion!

She sounds a delight - cheating on her partner and fraud at work! Hopefully karma will sort out her loose morals eventually!

BakedBeeeen - I know..! I really can’t understand the lack of morals in some people. People think they’re cheating “the system” but actually the more money spent on expenses the less there is for our wages and bonuses! I’m going to have to raise my concerns to management after Xmas.

I would whistleblow on her.

If you whistleblow, you have to be certain there is a good quality policy in place to protect against retaliation either of staff or accused employee.

Without that, the whistleblower risks getting embroiled in the whole sorry mess, and has limited to no protection themselves.

If it is a big global company, there is likely to be a confidential whistleblower line where you don't even need to provide your details.

Calls to the line are investigated, but they don't always result in action, depends on the outcome, for example some calls turn out to be malicious and some turn out to be people breaking what the caller thinks is a rule but it is actually not a problem. Point being that you are encouraged to report simply and factually and let the investigation work out the rights and wrongs.