Bank Teller Gets Nabbed for Theft

Laura Groves theft from the night deposit vault has been classified as a cash larceny, but classifying this crime is not as easy as it appears. This could be classified as skimming since the deposits were stolen before being recorded in the bank’s system. This fits in the definition of skimming in Principles of Fraud Management (Wells, p.51). However, the bank is not the victim in this case. While the bank has been entrusted with the deposited money, the bank did not sell anything in return for the money.

Since the depositors were the ultimate victims of the theft, this would be classified as cash larceny. The depositors had already accounted for the money before it was deposited, either in business or personal systems. This was evident because two clients quickly called regarding discrepancies in their accounts. Since the money had been entered into the accounting systems of depositors and then stolen it can be defined as a cash larceny, theft of organizations cash after it has been entered in the accounting system (Wells, p. 87).

Unlike traditional cash larcenies which typically occur between the point of sales and deposit into a bank (Wells, p.76), none of the traditional safe guards used to prevent cash larceny would have been effective in catching Groves. Usually companies divide the duties of counting, delivering, depositing, and verifying the deposit of money between several employees (Wells, p.83). Companies can additionally prevent a scheme called lapping by requiring night deposits and then verifying the deposits at the beginning of business the next day (Wells, p.84).

While the case study doesn’t mention what happened when Frank Geffen arrived at work and the night deposit vault was opened, the vault being entirely empty should have put the suspicion on Groves. According to Wells (p.74) there is other circumstantial evidence that would make her a suspect: her being present when the security system was off, she was the only employee present, having access to the vault, and her behavior under questioning. Additional evidence could have been collected by the police monitoring her credit card accounts for any large payments, or other bank accounts for large deposits.

The bank