Whistle blowing?

[BR14]

Leak the documents to a newspaper

de Overijssel courant?

[SueEllen]

Go down your local cop shop and report it to the desk officer. Get a crime number. Job done.

True that. The police will do SFA so you may as well do that.

Or you could report it online using Action Fraud who are even more useless. They have an A-Z list of types of fraud and I'm sure you could shoe-horn the fraud into one of the many categories. The email then would be proof that you have done your duty and reported it.

[whistle]

Thanks for all your advice - really helpful. First step is clearly to gather evidence that the FD was fully aware of the situation and instructed us not to report it to anyone, which is what I will work on over the next week or so. Then it gives options for what happens next.

[northernladyuk]

Thanks for all your advice - really helpful. First step is clearly to gather evidence that the FD was fully aware of the situation and instructed us not to report it to anyone, which is what I will work on over the next week or so. Then it gives options for what happens next.

Why do you want to collect evidence? Inform the authorities of what you currently know and suspect and let them do their work. Knowing more is unlikely to help your business IMO.

[radish2008]

Why do you want to collect evidence? Inform the authorities of what you currently know and suspect and let them do their work. Knowing more is unlikely to help your business IMO.

This. It's not your job to collect evidence. Go to the police now and tell them what you know. From reading this thread it looks to me like you're only trying to cover your own arse whilst being an accessory already. If you meddle and stall then any decent brief will turn this on you. What you should have done is have some balls and call it out straight away.

[filthy1980]

snitches get stitches - apparently

[whistle]

Thanks again for your advice - I was following the suggestions from Brillopad and mattfx to get some evidence that the FD knew about it and told me not to report it.

As I see it, as the company isn't prepared to report the supplier, there are four possible outcomes here.

First, I report the supplier. The authorities investigate and probably prosecute the supplier and their directors. There is no comeback to the company or me. Everyone is happy.

Secondly I report the supplier. The authorities investigate and prosecute but it becomes a big deal that we provided services to government departments sourced from the supplier, and it reflects badly on the company. The FD is hacked off that someone went against his explicit instructions and suspects it was me. They terminate my contract and he refuses to give me a decent reference for the work.

Thirdly I don't report the supplier and nobody else finds out about their fraud (or don't for a long time until we are sufficiently distanced from them). No comeback on the company or me. But they get away with it which leaves me morally conflicted.

Fourthly I don't report the supplier but a few months later the fraud comes to light. They get investigated, prosecuted etc, and then questions are asked about why we terminated them and what we knew about the fraud. FD and the permies cover their backsides, says they knew nothing about this and point at the contractor they had who should have spotted it.

So with that in mind, if I can get some evidence that the FD knew all about it and told me (and others) not to do anything, I get some cover. If I report it and there is comeback to the company, I doubt the FD would victimise me as he would not want me taking evidence to the authorities that the company wanted to cover it up. If I don't report it, again he would be unable to deny knowledge of it and that it wsa his decision to conceal it.

I think after reflection that I will be reporting it once I have something to cover my backside . We are only talking about a week or so delay and so I think it is worth getting some protection before going to the authorities.

[whistle]

This. It's not your job to collect evidence. Go to the police now and tell them what you know. From reading this thread it looks to me like you're only trying to cover your own arse whilst being an accessory already. If you meddle and stall then any decent brief will turn this on you. What you should have done is have some balls and call it out straight away.

Thanks radish but just to be clear neither I nor the company I am contracting with has anything to do with the fraud. I came across it during a supplier review (the first one I had done on this supplier) and it related to false accounting they had been doing apparently over a number of years. In the UK, unless you are in a regulated profession (I am not) there is no legal obligation to report fraud and from what I have read you do not become an accessory after the fact from not reporting something. There is certainly a moral obligation and as a citizen and a taxpayer I do feel that the supplier should not be allowed to get away with this. As I said above, I don't want to be left exposed if this all goes tits up.

[BrilloPad]

Thanks again for your advice - I was following the suggestions from Brillopad and mattfx to get some evidence that the FD knew about it and told me not to report it.

As I see it, as the company isn't prepared to report the supplier, there are four possible outcomes here.

First, I report the supplier. The authorities investigate and probably prosecute the supplier and their directors. There is no comeback to the company or me. Everyone is happy.

Secondly I report the supplier. The authorities investigate and prosecute but it becomes a big deal that we provided services to government departments sourced from the supplier, and it reflects badly on the company. The FD is hacked off that someone went against his explicit instructions and suspects it was me. They terminate my contract and he refuses to give me a decent reference for the work.

Thirdly I don't report the supplier and nobody else finds out about their fraud (or don't for a long time until we are sufficiently distanced from them). No comeback on the company or me. But they get away with it which leaves me morally conflicted.

Fourthly I don't report the supplier but a few months later the fraud comes to light. They get investigated, prosecuted etc, and then questions are asked about why we terminated them and what we knew about the fraud. FD and the permies cover their backsides, says they knew nothing about this and point at the contractor they had who should have spotted it.

So with that in mind, if I can get some evidence that the FD knew all about it and told me (and others) not to do anything, I get some cover. If I report it and there is comeback to the company, I doubt the FD would victimise me as he would not want me taking evidence to the authorities that the company wanted to cover it up. If I don't report it, again he would be unable to deny knowledge of it and that it wsa his decision to conceal it.

I think after reflection that I will be reporting it once I have something to cover my backside . We are only talking about a week or so delay and so I think it is worth getting some protection before going to the authorities.

I agree mostly. A few small comments.

1. Ignore the morality issue. You are only there to look after yourself. No good deed goes unpunished. Seriously.
2. If reporting it, I suggest you try to do so with some guarantee of anonymity.
3. Once you have something to cover yourself, you will be fine. If the FD tries to behave badly, you have something to persuade the FD to do the right thing. Though be very careful that anything you do cannot be interpreted as blackmail!

Very best of luck to you. Please give us an update at some point.

[radish2008]

You don't have any cover though.

1. You noticed the fraud and reported it.
2. You then failed to report it to HMRC.
3. You then waited for a few weeks to get evidence against your FD to say it's all his fault and not yours and you think that is going to save you.

Your evidence gathered in 3 is way after 2 and further shows you covering up a crime.

And what's your email going to look like to your FD ?

"Dear FD,

You know that £1 million fraud we both know about and that you told us not to report to HMRC ?

Can you reply please confirming the above ?

Ta,

xx"