Organized Crime In The New Millennium

Safeguards Against Embezzlement
Internal controls such as separation of duties are common defences against
embezzlement. For example, at a movie theatre (cinema), the task of accepting money
and admitting customers into the theatre is typically broken up into two jobs. One
employee sells the ticket, and another employee takes the ticket and lets the customer
into the theatre. Because a ticket cannot be printed without entering the sale into the
computer (or, in earlier times, without using up a serial-numbered printed ticket), and
the customer cannot enter the theatre without a ticket, both of these employees would
have to collude in order for embezzlement to go undetected. This significantly reduces
the chance of theft, because of the added difficulty in arranging such a conspiracy and
the likely need to split the proceeds between the two employees, which reduces the
payoff for each.
Another obvious method to deter embezzlement is to regularly and unexpectedly move
funds from one advisor or entrusted person to another when the funds are supposed to
be available for withdrawal or use, to ensure that the full amount of the funds is
available and no fraction of the savings has been embezzled by the person to whom the
funds or savings have been entrusted.
England and Wales
Offences of embezzlement were formerly created by sections 18 and 19 of the Larceny
Act 1916.
The former offences of embezzlement are replaced by the new offence of theft, contrary
to section 1 of the Theft Act 1968.
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