Arrested for employee theft of £340k over 7 years

[Si1977]

I was arrested yesterday and accused of stealing 340,000 pounds over 7 years. I work as a catering manager that counts money from a cash loader and passes it to another department who were supposed to reconcile it against a reading and then bank it, on a weekly basis. They never reconciled it and are now saying all this money is missing. As the manager and having responsibility they have accused me. There is no CCTV, no witness to suggest I have taken anything(I haven't but that seems irrelevant). However I gamble frequently, a lot on horse racing and put my winnings in my bank and they are asking me questions about this money obviously suggesting it is stolen money and not winnings, I cannot "prove" it is winnings as a lot of it is from actual race tracks where u get no receipts but a lot of people know I game and have been successful, I have tried to stop this year as my finances are a mess though. They have bailed me until November whilst they investigate further and look at my bank accounts. Any ideas on what my chances are and what the worst case scenario is? Surely with no actual
Proof I took money the onus is on them to prove the money I put in the bank is stolen?

[Si1977]

A cashless system is where you pay with a card that you top
Up with cash, they did write
It
Off
I saw the spreadsheets

[ummmm]

I find that hard to believe.

[EDDIE51]

Sorry I think I know what type of machine we are talking about now, ones where you put in cash to load credit on to a payment card. We have those where I work. They keep a permanent record of all cash paid in.
I now have a better idea of the situation. As I see it there are 2 possibilities either you took the cash or the people who you handed it over to did it.

[mccfluff]

lol

absolute botox

AUDITORS PEOPLE AUDITORS

[EDDIE51]

Been thinking about this , so you just take the cash out of the machine, count it and hand it over. You have no knowledge of how much is supposed to be there, the department you hand it to counts it but does not check that it tallys with what should be there.
I still say the same either you or the people who you hand it to are taking the cash. I work in catering and can not for the life of me see how £100,000 is just written off, we are in trouble if the cash is £5 short !

[ummmm]

Exactly, Eddie.

[EDDIE51]

Ummmm , Yes last week there was an investigation because the weeks cash was £8.34 down !

[mccfluff]

eddie, don;t waste your time

[ummmm]

Same with pubs. Anything over £5 is looked into.

[Si1977]

If it was OUR money we would do the same, reconcile at time of counting however it is their
Money and don't allow us access to the system
To audit the machine- we were expected to only count and deliver- as I said 10k was written off not 100k. Why would it be me that took the money when lost of other people had access to my office and the keys?

[mccfluff]

and i'm a size 8

[Si1977]

Wow-innocent until proven guilty huh?

Clever aren't you?

[mccfluff]

nope not particularly and i have never claimed to be. but you are obviously making this rubbish up

its pathetic. if your going to troll, do something clever or funny, this is just stupid

[Si1977]

Actually it is very real, I am bailed to return on the 8th November and I am banned from the site, my company have not suspended
Me as of yet either, it's an awful situation to be in and your right it is
Unbelievable
But here I am being accused

[joko]

well, bookies have cameras - and so do other shops that sometimes cover the bookies front door

see if you can get footage of you going in an out of the bookies so many times it would cover the amounts in your account....

[tonywiltshire]

You are quite correct that the normal rule is that the defendant in a criminal case is presumed innocent until he is proved guilty. It is therefore the duty of the prosecution to establishing both the actus reus (guilty act) and the mens rea (guilty mind).

[Peter Pedant]

The Crown has to prove the loss
so the burden of proof is on them

and you have already legal sdvice from a solicitor

so I dont think we can do/advise much more
and I agree with some of the posters - there are some surprising facts in all this - losses extending over 7 years being the first.

[dotty.]

sorry, but who pays their gambling winnings into their bank account? If you had some substantial wins would you not remember the name of the horse or the race? You should be able to sort that side of it out, the rest of your explanation sounds ridiculous, i do the banking at work on a mondya, we have a cash loss weekly budget of £8.25 and investigate if it is eve close to that. That's in a busy store, we double sign any bagged notes and we double sign and make up the banking bag for collection every fortnight, whoever you have worked for are eejits and should be in bother with the tax man for their sheer lack of keeping proper records.

[EDDIE51]

If the company you work for are as clueless about basic security as you describe a decent lawyer would run rings around them in court.
Even if you are guilty ( NOT saying you are) I would get a clever lawyer and go to court and demand a full jury trial. Given what you are saying so far you will get off.
You are definately guilty of gross stupidity but you may get off the theft charge.