Thief Who Targets Valuables On Aeroplanes Reveals Why It's So Easy To Do
April 12, 2016 | Business Crime
A woman allegedly operating as part of a large-scale robbery ring at a United States airport has revealed how she and her sticky-fingered accomplices have made a living stealing valuables from air travellers - and why it's so easy to do. The woman, who is under police investigation and has not been named, told CNN her work as an aircraft cleaner allowed her to comb planes after passengers had disembarked and make a living off the loot she found. Police believe the woman is operating as part of a widescale theft ring involving employee...
Nurse De-Registered Following Fraud
March 16, 2016 | Business Crime
An Auckland nurse whose extensive lies unravelled when she was caught embellishing her level of experience and concealing her criminal past has been censured and her registration cancelled. The case, which involves a female nurse with interim name suppression, was heard before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal in Wellington today. She has 21 days to appeal after a formal decision is released. The hearing heard the nurse - whose lawyer said she acknowledged what she did was wrong - had created a long list of fake reference...
Whanganui Company Ordered To Pay $20k After Failing To Provide Safe Workplace
March 12, 2016 | Business Crime
A Whanganui company must pay a former employee more than $20,000, after it was found to have placed the worker in a dangerous position after he revealed a culture of drug use. David Crichton was unfairly targeted by his boss, Euan Tweeddale, and put at risk from co-workers who had a propensity for violence, the Employment Relations Authority decided. Tweeddale's companies, TD Drilling 2014 and TD Drilling, were both found to have unjustifiably dismissed and disadvantaged Crichton, and ordered to pay him $22,115 in lost wages and compe...
Employee To Pay $110,000 For Stealing Data
February 10, 2016 | Business Crime
A man has been ordered to pay his former employer $110,058 after he set up a rival company and attracted a former customer away. Graeme Hill was employed by Tex Onsite, a company that provides high voltage testing and calibration services, until he resigned and helped to set up a rival company Mobile Test 'n' Cal NZ. Tex Onsite went to the Employment Relations Authority and accused Hill of breaching his duties of loyalty to his former employer by trying to take customers from Tex Onsite to his new company. Member of the Authority Anna...
Ex-UPS Driver Sentenced In Thefts Of Gold & Silver Bars
January 15, 2016 | Business Crime
A former driver for Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) accused of stealing shipments of gold and silver is sentenced to eight months in jail followed by probation for three years. Kevin Christopher Peel, who would face more than eight years in prison if he violates his probation, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading no-contest in November to six felony counts of grand theft and “related enhancement,”reports The Record Searchlight in Redding, Calif. Senior Deputy District Attorney Ben Hanna said that despite having ...
Crime Fighting Software Could Prevent $2M Of Retail Thefts
January 15, 2016 | Business Crime
A new cloud-based crime reporting system could prevent up to $2 million of retail thefts every day. Police have teamed up with Auckland-based company Auror who developed software that streamlines crime reporting processes. The software will be rolled out nationally after successful trials in Counties Manukau and Canterbury. The software enables retailers to complete incident reports and provide relevant information to police about thefts including shoplifting and petrol drive offs, and other incidents. The information can be shared be...
Facebook Appeal Helps Identify Gun Shop Thieves
January 13, 2016 | Business Crime
Minutes after posting CCTV footage of a man stealing close to to $20,000 in military equipment on Facebook, Christchurch gun shop owner David Tipple was inundated with messages "naming and shaming" the alleged thief. The man was captured on camera, grinning as he stole a 280840 ATN NVG7 Night Vision Head Unit valued at $17,999. The CCTV footage was posted on Gun City's Facebook page of a couple they say were in their store on Sunday afternoon at 3.07pm. The video shows a man leaning over the counter, taking an item and stuffing it in ...
Rival Gas Move Costs Ex-Employee Millions In Damages
November 16, 2015 | Business Crime
A former employee who used company information to sign on clients for his competing business has been ordered to pay millions of dollars to his old workplace in damages. The Employment Relations Authority has ordered Michael Mitchell to pay Nova Energy annual damages over $1 million for a period of seven years. Mitchell was a former employee of Auckland Gas Company, a subsidiary of Todd Energy, before it amalgamated with Nova in 2013. Mitchell decided to leave the company, and before he quit he uploaded Nova's client list and rates, d...
Employee Surveillance: What's Legal?
July 28, 2015 | Business Crime
With the number of employee grievance claims showing no sign of decreasing, it can be tempting to go to extreme measures in an attempt to gain proof of misconduct or liability. But just how far can an employer go in terms of employee monitoring before they cross the line?Blair Scotland, partner at Dundas Street Employment Lawyers, shed some light on the legalities around employee surveillance.“An employer can set up overt video surveillance provided that it tells employees and others within the workplace, such as customers, that they ...
Former Meatworker Goes To Court After Employer Secretly Tracked Work Car
July 27, 2015 | Business Crime
A former meatworker who had his work car secretly tracked on the path to dismissal has taken his case to the Employment Court. Former Randwick Meats employee Dale Burns won an Employment Relations Authority decision issued on July 1 to have his claim for unjustified dismissal heard along with two existing personal grievance claims in the Employment Court. The butcher-turned-sales representative worked at the meatpackers for more than 20 years without a written employment agreement before serious allegations of misconduct led to a fina...