A criminal prosecution has highlighted the dangers of agents not changing passwords when an employee leaves or is sacked.
Ryan Adams, 22, was sacked for under-performance after nearly a year working as an administrator on the property maintenance side of the business for agents Miller Metcalfe.
The company used specialist software to help administer clients’ accounts, but Bolton Crown Court heard that generic passwords were used to access it.
Adams, who had gambling debts, accessed the computer by using a former colleague’s password.
Between August and November last year, he stole £6,720 by transferring the cash to his bank accounts, using the names of fictitious contractors.
He obtained a further £4,000 by using a pseudonym and contracting out work.
The colleague, Kelly Tyler, noticed the discrepancies and told her bosses, but came under suspicion of having stolen the money herself.
Although cleared, she was ultimately sacked for not having taken care with paying contractors.
Adams was sentenced to six months in jail, with Judge Graeme Smith criticising him for having dragged the unwitting Miss Tyler into his crime.
The judge said: “Such suspicion was inevitable and has had significant consequences.”
So an employee outs a thief, gets accused, gets cleared, gets fired anyway……..seems reasonable
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This case does highlight the one fear the majority of our estate agent and property management clients have over password access to sensitive systems. One should question the role of the ‘specialist software’ in this story and it’s own security measures. It goes without saying that when choosing software for your estate agency or property management business it is not just price or functionality that should be the deciding factor but also (and especially where financial transactions are involved) the extent the software provider has considered security of data and the standards it meets to protect unauthorised access.
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Good morning Eurolink, the only real protection against this is separation of duties whereby it takes two people working together to pull this off. Any firm which relies allows on one trusted member of staff to, receipt, bank, reconcile (etc) is being unfair to themselves, their staff and their customers.
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So you let staff have access to your finances …. are you nuts!!!!!!!!!!
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technically this cash has been nicked from clients not from the firm.
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