{"id":2854,"date":"2024-03-13T10:34:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T08:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/?p=2854"},"modified":"2024-03-13T10:34:38","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T08:34:38","slug":"stealing-from-the-hand-that-feeds-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/2024\/03\/13\/stealing-from-the-hand-that-feeds-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Stealing from the hand that feeds you"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"358\" src=\"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-3-1024x358.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2855\" srcset=\"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-3-1024x358.png 1024w, https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-3-300x105.png 300w, https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-3-768x268.png 768w, https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-3.png 1475w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We very often hear that an employee who was found to have defrauding or stealing from his\/her employer was \u201cthe last person they expected this from\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Employers often ask: Why did this happen? Why did this trusted employee who I never expected to do something like this, misappropriate assets from the company that pays his salary?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>One theory that aims to explain this, is the \u201cfraud triangle\u201d. This triangle says that when an employee is under some form of \u201cpressure\u201d, when an \u201copportunity\u201d to enrich them arise, and if they are able to \u201crationalise\u201d their actions, fraud and other self-enriching conduct may occur. Let\u2019s have a brief look at these 3 concepts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Pressure (or need) \u2013 Pressure may be real or perceived. Pressure is usually created by the circumstances of the perpetrator and may for e.g. involve personal financial pressures such as a spouse who loses a job, incidents such as accidents or even not qualifying for debt or loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Opportunities \u2013 Opportunities to commit fraud or other financial crimes can manifest themselves in different ways, but most often involve poor internal controls, inadequate segregation of duties or safeguarding assets, etc. This may make it relatively easy for a perpetrator to record fraudulent transactions or steal assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Rationalisation \u2013 Rationalisation is the process by which a person committing these irregularities legitimises or justifies his\/her actions. This often includes an attitude or feeling of entitlement and\/or a belief that \u201cthe company can afford it\u201d, or \u201cI am worth much more than what they pay me. In some public sector environments, we often even hear \u201ceverybody is doing it\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The message to employers is that they should be aware of the 3 aspects that may lead to the risk of falling victim to these crimes, while they should also prevent \u201copportunities\u201d to present themselves by implementing financial and other internal controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Forensic practitioners can assist by performing a risk assessment for your company, which would indicate if any of these risk factors are present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We very often hear that an employee who was found to have defrauding or stealing from his\/her employer was \u201cthe last person they expected this from\u201d. Employers often ask: Why &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2856,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2854\/revisions\/2856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}