Employee Theft - Trusted Employee is an Oxymoron

Being in daily contact with a wide variety of business owners, I am hearing increasing stories of "trusted" employees ripping off their business owners. Some of the schemes have been going on for years and involve significant sums of money. The downtown in the economy has resulted in more and more owners taking a close look at their expenses and business practices. The deeper they look for ways to cut costs and examine their expenses, employee theft has often been exposed. During goods times many owners turned a blind eye to employee theft with the attitude that it was bound to happen but it just needed to stay within "acceptable limits". With declining sales and increased expenses many owners are forced to adopt a "zero tolerance" policy in order to keep their business afloat during these troubled economic times. I have heard of many instances where discovered losses have exceeded six figures--if a business owner hasn't done their own loss prevention analysis--now is the time! Hint: "trusted employee" is indeed an oxymoron.