An employee stole hardware worth several hundred thousand euros over several years. Both culprits have now been caught and charged.
What kind of employee was this? The culprit worked as a “Production Manager” (which is roughly equivalent to a production supervisor in Germany) and was responsible for inventory control and had an overview of the company’s finances.
Between 2013 and 2019, the employee made various expensive products, including laptops, computers, or components disappear and sold them through a middleman on eBay and other platforms. The total amounts to around £200,000, which is approximately €230,000.
The two shared the money from the sales, with the court learning that the accomplice was dependent on the money obtained. This was reported by colleagues from Dorset.live.
At some point, the company noticed that hardware was missing and that someone within the company must have manipulated the system, possibly by adjusting inventory records. However, they could not find out who was behind it. Due to the financial losses, some employees were also reportedly laid off.
The theft was noticed when a very specific device was to be sold
How was the theft discovered? On June 28, 2019, one of the company’s employees discovered a specific laptop with a very precise specification for sale. He informed the managing director, who investigated the matter. This led to a fateful misunderstanding (via dorset.live):
They [the employee and the managing director] went to the seller’s house, and he told them that he had bought the item from […] where he regularly acquired items at low prices.
Names and locations have been replaced with […].
He thought he was selling it on behalf of his boss. The seller provided the [company’s managing director] with the middleman’s address, and on July 3, 2019, he visited his residence […]. There he checked the laptop and was able to determine from the serial number that it was missing.
The managing director explained the situation to the culprit and emphasized that there was considerable evidence pointing to the sold goods and that it was in his best interest to cooperate with the ongoing investigations.
The accomplice provided information about the agreement between himself and the main perpetrator and revealed that they had sold at least
- 20 to 30 laptops
- 10 desktop computers
- 50 GPUs and other components like hard drives and monitors
They were supposed to have sold. In addition, he handed over WhatsApp chats that illustrated the extent of the criminal activities.
How did the matter end? The main perpetrator receives a prison sentence of 3 years and 8 months. The police were able to secure €67,658.25 in total. His accomplice is still awaiting a verdict, which is expected to be announced soon.
There are also problems in other companies. A crypto bank now has to pay a large sum and fire its own CEO:
