IT worker borrowed €50k in a ‘calculated deception’

Employee sought stock options in firm in exchange for his low-key departure

A COMPUTER engineer, who borrowed €50,000 from six colleagues at his firm has lost his claim for unfair dismissal at the Workplace Relations Commission.

His boss had told the commission the man had engaged in a ‘calculated deception to get money from his employer’ – including numerous appeals for money to help his father access cancer treatment.

When confronted by his bosses, the man said he would refuse to answer questions about his father and suggested that the company ‘close the case’ by offering him stock options in exchange for his quiet departure.

The man’s tactics included borrowing money from a colleague, then defriending the man on Facebook and refusing to take his calls, and spamming work associates on LinkedIn, requesting money.

Initially, the man received a loan of €3,000 in April 2017 from his employer ‘on a humanitarian and exceptional basis’ after the computer engineer in his ‘urgent loan request’ said that he required the money for hospital treatment fees for his father who was diagnosed with cancer.

He then secured a loan of $20,000 (€17,320) from his immediate boss in June of last year after telling him that he needed the money to pay for an additional hospital stay after his father had to undergo a triple heart by-pass.

During this time on a business trip to the US, the IT specialist ran up a $5,651 (€4,850) expenses bill on the company credit card and had not entered an expense report for approval.

It was during the Irish-based company’s investigation into the unpaid expenses bill that the scale of the man’s borrowing spree with colleagues was laid bare.

Along with the €17,320 that his boss had provided for his father’s hospital treatment, the company learned on August 14 last that three other employees had lent the man money in amounts that totalled more than €20,000.

On August 22, another company employee came forward to say that had lent the man €9,000 and only €900 was paid back. Three days later, another employee came forward to say that he had lent him €3,000 towards the end of July and said that the man was not reachable and had unfriended the employee on Facebook.

In total, the man borrowed €37,671 from four work colleagues along with an additional €12,000 from two others, giving a total of €49,671.

During the investigation, the man claimed that the $20,000 borrowed from his boss for his father’s cancer treatment had been repaid but the IT specialist company discovered that the money was still outstanding.

The company also learned that the IT engineer approached a senior leader outside his own normal management chain for a loan of €20,000 in July 2017, claiming his father had complications arising from his cancer treatment.

On July 27, 2017, another employee reported that he had been approached by the IT specialist for a loan of €12,000 and he had advised HR of this as he thought that the approach was highly unusual. No money changed hands in either case.

On August 24, the company sacked the man for gross misconduct as a result of violating the company’s expense policy.

He got a loan of $20k from his boss Ran up €5k on firm’s credit card

The firm stated that the dismissal was warranted by the IT engineer’s ‘calculated deception to get money from his employer’. The man sued for unfair dismissal at the Workplace Relations Commission and the WRC has found his claim was not well founded.

He did not turn up at the WRC hearing to advance his claim.