Factory Thief identified by Stafford Lie Detector Test
Our client has a food relabelling and sales business. When large amounts of products went missing he ordered a Stafford lie detector test for his brother in law.
Paddy’s Case
Paddy and George had been businesses partners in many different food enterprises for years. They bought lorry loads of food and drink when the trucks had been involved in accidents. This often led to a few cans or jars bursting and spoiling the labelling on all the other products in a load. Because the goods are insured they are sold off at a fraction of the retail price.
The food would then be transported to Paddy and George’s factory where the waste would be disposed of. The remainder was cleaned up and relabelled with their own or a customer’s brand.
Apart from cans and jars, there were many other food products which could be relabelled and then sold. Sometimes the two business partners would donate products that were slightly past the ‘Best Before’ date to food banks.
During the pandemic the demand for food escalated and the factory was operating around the clock.
Significant stock deficiency
One day Paddy received and order for 250 cases of assorted jams. He knew they could fill the order because they had recently purchased the contents of a crashed articulated lorry.
However, when he went to check, there were around 100 cases at most. He called George to find out if he had sold any of the stock but he said he hadn’t. As busy as they were, Paddy decided to do a stock check over a bank holiday weekend when no one would be working.
He found a significant shortage of baked beans, spaghetti hoops, canned tomatoes, olive oil, jam and marmalade.
For this amount of stock to go missing, transport would be needed to move it. He spoke to Kevin, his transport manager and brother in law, who told him he knew nothing about it.
In a meeting the next day with George, the partners decided someone was stealing from them and not in a small way.
Motivation, means and opportunity
Paddy and George talked for hours about who had the motivation, means and opportunity to steal the goods. After a process of elimination, the only person they could think of was Kevin.
Everyone agreed that Kevin had ‘punched above his weight’ when he had married Paddy’s sister, Shauna. She was a woman who liked the best of everything and expected her husband to pay for it. Paddy had no idea how Kevin kept up with her expensive shopping sprees, on the salary he was being paid. Although he suspected he knew how, he was soon going to find out for certain.
Kevin worked mainly night shifts and had access to the transport. Workers in the factory wouldn’t bat an eyelid if they saw goods being loaded overnight. They would assume the loads were for customers and of course, some of them were. With a shortage of HGV drivers, Kevin did some of the deliveries himself.
Stafford lie detector test
As a result of Kevin continuing to deny any involvement in the missing stock, the partners decided he should take a lie detector test in Stafford. He could, of course, refuse but if he did Paddy made it clear that he would discuss the matter with Shauna.
Kevin took the Stafford lie detector test and as Paddy and George had suspected, he failed it miserably. Our West Midlands polygraph examiner analysed the results, had them peer reviewed and then sent the report to Paddy within 24 hours.
Conclusion
When confronted with the report, Kevin admitted to what he had done. He was selling the stock to a variety of corner shops in the West Midlands. The reason was that Shauna’s spending had got them into a lot of debt.
At any other time, Kevin would have been sacked. But since the business was already struggling with a shortage of drivers, Paddy convinced George to keep him on. The value of stock would be deducted incrementally from his salary they said.
Having been caught, Paddy didn’t think Kevin would do it again especially with the threat of telling Shauna being held over his head.
