“She was scratching Bankcos in the back room”: The tobacco employee defrauded her employers of 32,000 euros in scratch tickets

“She could have ruined our business. Put us on the street, my husband, our two children and me. Fortunately we unmasked her in time…” Her face drawn, Cécile has tears in her eyes when she talks about the past year. A year where darkness predominated. The desire to fight too. Be there 7 days a week to save your business from bankruptcy.

“When the images from our video cameras showed the obvious, it was a terrible shock. To be robbed by your own employee, in our presence, almost before our eyes…”

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In April 2023, the accounting firm of this tobacconist from Fenouillet, north of Toulouse, sounded the alarm. “We had been doing two inventories a year for 20 years. Everything had always been square. And the only time we left it a little behind…”

“Cashroom errors” come up a little too often. “Even between the two of us, it became a subject of friction. Theft in a business, by an employee, is the dread of every manager. Because there is very little recourse.”

“She’s a mother, like us”

When explanations are requested, one of the two employees, recruited 16 months previously, sometimes places the blame on a young apprentice.

“We were far from suspecting that it could be her. She is a mother, like us, our children are in middle and high school, her children in primary school. We were close, I passed her some of my children’s clothes for his family, we gave him a little gift at Christmas.”

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The feeling of betrayal is all the more violent. In July 2023, “I was at the cinema with my children, I remember”, Cécile receives a call from her husband. “I found it,” Pascal tells him.

The next day, the manager calls her employee into her office. “She looked down, cowered. She confessed straight away.” The video surveillance images don’t lie. The interview prior to his dismissal will follow.

When she wins in a scratch card, she cashes in the winnings directly

“I spent a whole week going through the images.” In front of us, Cécile goes behind the counter, and mimes the gestures of her employee, who sometimes puts bundles of scratch games in her pocket, in front of us.

“On video footage, we even see her stealing tickets, just after cashing my own daughter, who was buying candy with friends. Sometimes, she went to the bathroom for quite a long time. In fact, she was scratching tickets. And even cashing the earnings in our own fund.”

Flights estimated at 32,000 euros

Cécile and Pascal file a complaint with the police. They provide CCTV footage. “Flights only using scratch tickets from Française des Jeux are estimated at 32,000 euros by our accountant. And we don’t count candy and other drinks.”

“By alerting the press, we want to warn. She must not be able to start again. And she must be condemned” On October 23, Cécile and Pascal will meet their former employee in court. “She will certainly not show up. There will be her lawyer. She is entitled to it free of charge, thanks to legal aid. This is not our case. We will be alone. And obviously, we do not hope to recover our money.”