ALBURY businessman Scott Andrews believes fraud by employees in this region is rife and will get worse in the present economic times.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Andrews, 42, yesterday spoke out to warn other businesses to be vigiliant with their financial affairs after a former employee was jailed for stealing more than $70,000 from him.
“I was a naive businessman because I thought people do their jobs,” he said.
But since the theft from him became public, Mr Andrews has become aware of about a dozen businesses which have been ripped off by employees.
“I have got business friends going through it now,” he said.
“I was so busy running the business that I did not have enough time to look at its internal structure.
“Business owners and proprietors need to physically and randomly check statements and transaction histories.”
Mr Andrews said his former accounts manager, Rhonda Keen, had his accountant fooled with misleading transactions and the transfer of money into two accounts belonging to her.
Mr Andrews, along with his retired father Brian, owns Andrews Office Furniture in central Albury with clients based over a wide area of NSW.
His father had just retired about the time of the thefts, Mr Andrews said he had lost a bit of expertise in the business and Keen chose “a window of opportunity”.
The impact of the substantial theft was signifant with Mr Andrews having to close a successful shop at Griffith.
His wife’s car was sold and they had to get rid of other personal assets.
“We are really just back in front now,” he said.
His wife, Yolana, gave up her career in medical science and worked tirelessly to track their lost money.
“We had to check hundreds and hundreds of transfers,” Mr Andrews said.
It took their bank nine months to physically process thousands of transactions over a two to three- year period.
Mr Andrews said the business did hundreds of transactions every month.
“I called in the tax office and they were brilliant,” he said.
“We got three years behind in our tax and they gave us some leniency.”
Mr Andrews said every business in the region must be conscientous with its financial situation to avoid possible thefts by staff members.
He welcomed the jail term imposed and said hopefully it would deter others from committing similar offences.
