Should I fire an employee if I find out that they have embezzled from someone else in the past?
Home > Media > Embezzlement Blog > Should I fire an employee if I find out that they have embezzled from someone else in the past?What You'll Learn
- Why Prosperident CEO David Harris told two dental practice owners in the same week to fire employees who had embezzled from a previous employer, even after a fresh investigation showed no current theft.
- The statistic that past embezzlers make up 20% of all dental embezzlers, and how proper pre-employment screening would have flagged both employees' histories before they were ever hired.
- Harris's reasoning for calling repeat offenders "ticking time bombs": having already crossed the "criminal threshold" once, and having lied about it on their job application, the pressures that drove the original theft are likely to recur.
- Confirmation that both practice owners in Harris's account followed his advice and terminated the employees, illustrating the recommended real-world response to this exact situation.
Should I fire an employee if I find out that they have embezzled from someone else in the past?
Over the past week, I’ve encountered a couple of similar situations, which leads me to believe that this scenario is worthy of my writing about it.
By David Harris, CEO, Prosperident
Both situations started with a call from a practice owner who had just discovered that an employee had previously embezzled from another practice.
While this isn’t my focus today, I’ll mention that this does highlight the poor job that most dentists do when screening job applicants; in both cases, this information was discoverable before hiring. An article on proper pre-employment screening is here.
In both calls, we were being asked to see if these employees were now embezzling. I think that the hope of my callers was that if our investigation came back “clean,” they could stop worrying about these employees.
Unfortunately, it fell to me to burst their bubbles, and I told each caller that in my view, the employees should be fired immediately.
Embezzlers are people who, responding to a particular set of pressures, chose to steal. Many others, in similar circumstances, adopted some other solution. The probability that, over the duration of their employment, those pressures will reoccur is considerable.
Once someone has shown a preparedness to cross the “criminal threshold,” particularly if doing so had relatively few consequences, the likelihood of recidivism is high.
There are certainly people (and I count myself among them) who, after youthful miscreance, choose to change their behavior. I know and admire many people who made a positive change in their direction.
However, both of the employees in question failed a basic honesty test when applying for their current positions — they could have owned up to their pasts instead of concealing them. Since both got their jobs on the basis of lies, this tells me that they have not yet turned the corner towards honesty, and are “ticking time bombs.”
While it wasn’t exactly what my callers were hoping to hear from me, I’m pleased to tell you that both have taken my advice and have parted company with these employees. In a similar situation, you should do the same.
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Someone Else's Problem Becomes Yours the Day You Hire Them.
Past embezzlers make up 20% of all dental embezzlers. Prosperident's pre-employment screening identifies candidates who have stolen before—so you never have to learn it the hard way.
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By David Harris, CEO, Prosperident
Over the past week, I’ve encountered a couple of similar situations, which leads me to believe that this scenario is worthy of my writing about it.
Both situations started with a call from a practice owner who had just discovered that an employee had previously embezzled from another practice.
While this isn’t my focus today, I’ll mention that this does highlight the poor job that most dentists do when screening job applicants; in both cases, this information was discoverable before hiring. An article on proper pre-employment screening is here.
In both calls, we were being asked to see if these employees were now embezzling. I think that the hope of my callers was that if our investigation came back “clean,” they could stop worrying about these employees.
Unfortunately, it fell to me to burst their bubbles, and I told each caller that in my view, the employees should be fired immediately.
Embezzlers are people who, responding to a particular set of pressures, chose to steal. Many others, in similar circumstances, adopted some other solution. The probability that, over the duration of their employment, those pressures will reoccur is considerable.
Once someone has shown a preparedness to cross the “criminal threshold,” particularly if doing so had relatively few consequences, the likelihood of recidivism is high.
There are certainly people (and I count myself among them) who, after youthful miscreance, choose to change their behavior. I know and admire many people who made a positive change in their direction.
However, both of the employees in question failed a basic honesty test when applying for their current positions — they could have owned up to their pasts instead of concealing them. Since both got their jobs on the basis of lies, this tells me that they have not yet turned the corner towards honesty, and are “ticking time bombs.”
While it wasn’t exactly what my callers were hoping to hear from me, I’m pleased to tell you that both have taken my advice and have parted company with these employees. In a similar situation, you should do the same.
Have questions about your practice? Click the button below
Someone Else's Problem Becomes Yours the Day You Hire Them.
Past embezzlers make up 20% of all dental embezzlers. Prosperident's pre-employment screening identifies candidates who have stolen before—so you never have to learn it the hard way.
About the author
David Harris
Forensic CPA, CFE, CFF, FIADFE — Chief Executive Officer, Prosperident
David Harris is the Chief Executive Officer of Prosperident, the world's largest dental embezzlement investigation firm. A Forensic CPA, Certified Fraud Examiner, and Certified in Financial Forensics, he has led investigations into financial crime in dental practices since 1989 and speaks regularly to dental audiences across North America on detecting and preventing embezzlement.
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