IT boss jailed for plundering Scottish library The technology boss of the National Library of Scotland has been jailed for two years for embezzling money. David Dinham, a 33-year-old Australian, was chief information officer for the library and in charge of a £1.8m budget to digitise the collection. After making a small purchase on his company credit card, Dinham realised …
And what became of the people who didn't check this man's work? An organisational structure that puts the keys to the cash register in a man's pocket and then turns away is at least as much to blame as the man who fails to withstand the temptation.
Meanwhile, doubtless, some clerk is having their £10 bill for office supplies mercilessly scrutinised.
"An organisational structure that puts the keys to the cash register in a man's pocket and then turns away is at least as much to blame as the man who fails to withstand the temptation."
If I leave my front door unlocked am I "at least as much to blame" as the burglar that nicks my stuff? For the love of Newton, what kind of a fucked up prick thinks you are as guilty as a criminal for trusting someone who then steals from you? Presumably the same sticking piles of shite who think women are "at least as much to blame" for being raped if they wear a short skirt?
But, I went to a Baptist church in the American south for a while in the 60's ( I was very young) until they told me I needed to find another church because I asked too many questions. Kind of answered my questions for me. Now I know all organized religion is a scam. Maybe that's why so many crooks run to it once they're found out.
Depression does not drive you to commit big-ticket fraud. I can see some argument for it 'making' this bloke buy stuff on the company credit card (not a very good argument, it must be said). But for putting 10 (ten) contracts his company's way? Nope. There's a difference between 'buying yourself a treat on the company's dime because you think they owe you' and 'channeling money straight into your own pocket'. Although £260,000 is an awful lot to try and justify as 'treats'.
As someone with depression who has (so far) resisted the temptation to embezzle a six-figure sum and/or commit any other major crime while using my mental illness as an excuse, these kind of pleas in mitigation piss me off. When a common mental illness is constantly used as an excuse for the commission of a crime, it runs the risk of damning everyone with that illness.
True* story from my experience at Australian customs. After displaying my Passport I was asked some testing questions.
Customs Officer - "Do you have a criminal record?"
Mr Bungle - "No, I didn't realise you still needed one to get in"
*Disclamer - may or may not be true.
"If I leave my front door unlocked am I "at least as much to blame" as the burglar that nicks my stuff?"
In the insurance company's eyes, I'm very much afraid you might be. Look up "contributory negligence".
If you're a professionally-run organisation, you never, NEVER put one single person in charge of ANYTHING without there being someone else who knows what's going on. If nothing else, it ensures you have someone as a backup in case that single person gets sick, goes on holiday or quits.
And you do audits. You can reasonably expect to find minor stuff wrong or misfiled, or the process misunderstood. People are human, and saying "just do your job" is not much use when it comes down to interpretation of several squillion pages of rules. And when it comes to finances, there are VERY strict rules about what you can and can't do, which if you fail to follow them will put your organisation in a very nasty position with the tax authorities, unions or a disaffected employee. This is a serious balls-up by the finance department.
"At least as much to blame" is certainly going too far. But a company has to recognise that no-one knows their employees well enough to give them absolute trust. Suppose an electrician told you "I'll do this work for you if you'll just give me complete access to your bank account" - would you be stupid enough to do it? Because that's precisely what this bunch of muppets effectively did.
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