Thoughts and advice pls on trusted cleaner stealing money

Thank goodness for lionpop's straightforward response. I was beginning to despair of this thread.

Having a meeting? Asking her if she has any problems? She's a THIEF.

Deal with it before she moves on to somebody else.

Take lionpops advice. Don't guess what to do, ask the right people, the police.
The daughter may not exist so ignore that. We were conned out of only £5 by a woman in distress & didn't report it. turnwd out she was a serial offender & ended up with a prison sentence. My DiL abroad has just diacovered a 'cleaner' & taxi driver were taking her Dad (who lives a long way from them) to an ATM every week, probably with his 'agreement', & vast amounts have been drawn out. She a) stopped the money being taken out (not easy without power of attorney, but did it), b) got him a safe place nearto them, c) went to an Attorney & police. It will be interesting to see how the German police handle it.

I'd confront her after setting a trap and making absolutely sure it's her. Tell her you know-or strongly suspect-that she has taken other sums of money. Sack her, and warn your friends. Ask her for the money to be paid back.

I think going to the police is OTT.

Going to the police is OTT? DH and I are laughing our socks off at some of the responses on here.

Read the OP....She has stolen £600

What do you think the police are for?

Cant believe you are asking for advice! and that you are even saying she is a trusted cleaner!
She is a thief and has to be reported to the police.

I wouldn't 'confront' her as such ....
Simply sack her. It's bad enough when someone you trust does this but what's to be gained by a confrontation. Even more upsetting.

A valuable lesson .... Money is the root of all evil. It's happened to me in the past and despite how generous you are, just don't trust any paid help!

May sound harsh but sadly it's true.
If any 'workers' are in the house I make sure my bag is well hidden away and any serious cash is in the safe. I don't even leave my good jewellery laying around!

Horrible isn't it ..... And I do feel for you. Human nature can be very disappointing ...

My parents who were in their 90s, had a cleaner who they thought the world of. We discovered that she was stealing from them but knew it would break their hearts to know. We contacted the agency and explained and they dealt with it. We told my parents that the agency had put their fees up too much and I did the cleaning myself

I don't think you have read the posts above, Teddy123 Theft is theft, and it is addictive.

The gain from going to the police is not for the person who has been robbed, it is for those who WILL be robbed if they just take away the pay she is getting for cleaning THEIR house so that she goes elswhere and cleans the house of someone else - who doesn't know about her taking ways.

Someone who perhaps is in

Someone who trusts her to take them to an ATM to help draw out more because they can't find the cash they hid (and don't want to let their family think that they are getting forgetful).

Someone whose bank account could be stripped cleaner than their kitchen floor.

Trusted cleaner my eye! Untrustworthy conwoman more like.

Third paragraph should have said "Someone who perhaps is in the habit of hiding money away and forgetting where it is"

They can say they know about the theft if they have evidence of her doing it but they have no evidence of the other thefts so they can't ask for that money back.

If they don't have evidence and don't go to the police, could she sue them for wrongful dismissal if they say that is why they are dismissing her, especially if they tell their friends and she looses those jobs. Just think if someone wrongly accused your daughter at work of wrong doing and dismissed her and told everyone and they had no proper evidence. I am sure she would be at a wrongful dismissal tribunal plus sueing for character deformation.

Next problem do they employ her, that is pay her national insurance etc or is it just cash in hand. Are they illegally employing her. Is she self employed as many cleaners are and does she give them a receipt. Is she claiming benefits and working. As a self employed person she can still receive some benefits.

I think the best action is to give her notice saying you don't need her anymore and tell your friends you are always careful not to leave money around when employing someone in the house. Finally buy a small wall safe for valuables.

Please follow lionpops advice.

Can't believe some of these posts, she is a thief, have a meeting with her, talk to her, whatever next. The police need to be informed and she needs to be stopped.

Absolutely right Barmyoldbat, and to be certain, make a list of the numbers on the notes so she cannot say they were hers.

Get some webcam 'proof' and put the matter in the hands of the police. You owe it to all the others this woman will rob is she is not named and shamed. As for her daughter, it's unfortunate, but she should be thinking about her own daughter herself.

I know a carer who was 'looking after' an elderly blind woman. She made the woman change her will to leave her house to her and she got neighbours to witness a new will that left £80,000 to the carer. The woman died in, to us, strange circumstances on Boxing Day when the NHS and Social Services were hard pressed and no one was taking any notice of anything. Some carer. Some care.

People who care or clean or look after vulnerable others are in a position of great trust and these jobs will be a magnet for the unscrupulous. It is the job of others to monitor these trusted employees to protect the innocent and prevent future suffering.

I had a similar situation with a cleaner. Over a few months she took jewellery which was hidden in a drawer rolled up in tea towels. Couldn't prove it was her but we trusted her so much she had a house key.
Husband went round and confronted her and got the house key back. She started crying saying it wasn't her but she was the only one who had been in the house apart from us.
We didn't go to the police as we had no evidence,but I think she's now working as a carer.
We now have a safe attached to the wall.Horse and bolted spring to mind.

Merlot She took £600, but who knows how much she has helped herself to from others in the past or from OP's recommendations who are using her now. £600 is a lot of money IMHO for anyone, it's not petty theft.

Like Luckygirl I lost to a builder friend my mother's diamond ring which was well hidden. He must have really dug through my wardrobe and drawers daily to find the box. I was too upset to confront him, but he knew we knew as we never had him back again and our boys cut off contact.

I do not trust builders now, which is sad as my youngest is in that line of work as a contractor. He has particularly cautioned me that when scaffolding goes up on adjoining buildings, we must make sure all our tenants keep their windows shut and locked all day whilst they are out. You would be surprised at what a 'casual' scaffold worker can do with that kind of access, even if it's passing info onto others actually who do the theft so he's not involved.

Ah... had to re-read Merlot you were
quoting someone else's take on it.
Sorry!

We had a similar situation with an elderly relative who lived with us we employed a young woman to help with his care and because had dementia we used to put small amounts of money in his wallet as he became agitated if he didn't have money on him. We became aware that money was going from his wallet whenever he had a bath. The carer was the only person who assisted him. So we contact the police who marked the notes in his wallet with some invisible ink. We then checked his wallet after his next bath and found the notes had gone. The police arrested her when the money was found in her pocket and she went to court and placed on probation. Fortunately our elderly relative didn't understand what was happening and died shortly after.

It's a horrible situation. She must be " let go" straight away, no doubt. And friends who took her on at their recommendation must be warned but told that the cleaner is purely a suspect, then they won't be slandering her. It depends after that whether or not they are totally certain and how they feel about telling police, they have to live with their decision. If she works for an agency , it must be told, but they could say they are not happy about having her in the house when they re not there and leave it at that. And no money in house unless in a safe with a code. Ever.
A camera is good if they can cope with the consequences. And if they get proof they can decide what to do. I use an agency, and any small problems are quickly dealt with but I take photos as back up. Not for missing money, but for other things, not major. The agency always wants to know any problems straight away.

There are small safes available you can get for home use. My mum had one, got it when money started going missing - she too had carers. Just make sure they don't ask the carer to open it for them and give them the number!

My very elderly father had cleaner who was stealing from him. To prove it he went out to collect his pension whilst she was there, put in in his desk, and looked in the drawer an hour later - it was gone. He confronted her, she denied it, but eventually gave him the money back and left. Only when she had gone did we discover that my mother's jewellery had also gone (my mother had dementia, Parkinson's and depression, and was in a nursing home, so her jewellery was kept in a box in her dressing table at home). We contacted the police, but they said no evidence to investigate. I dread how many other people she has robbed.

If you have any doubts about anything at all you need to do something to put the matter to rest. I would be most unhappy to find that my friends had recommended I welcome a thief into my home!

Quote from Edmund Burke:
"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"

You must contact the police.

I had a cleaner who, it turned out, was systematically stealing from us. We saved 50p and £1 pieces (20+ years ago) - never counted them but knew there was a good sum. Checked and counted one day - a little disappointed in the total but kept adding to it and about a week later checked again. Less than the sum when we first counted!
So we set a trap. Chose a time when no one other than ourselves and the evil Mrs Mop had been in the house and sure enough, money went missing.
My problem was that she was married to a violent thug and I was totally confident that if I'd confronted her, his retaliation would be frightening. So I put a weeks money (ouch) in an envelope with a note saying that my circumstances had changed and I would no longer be needing her.

My eldest grandaughter tuse to come and visit and I found out she was taking money and other stuff. When I confronted her she pushed me into a wall. I calledt the police and she was charged with assault and stealing from me. She was charged and an order banning her from contactingme or coming into our town was put in place.