manchester debenhams loss prevention.

there has been a lot of speculation as to what happend to the old loss prevention team in the manchester store and as to why they were dismissed. i can not speak for the rest of the team but this is what happend to me in april 2005 i was called to the finance ops managers office to be informed that myself and the rest of the team were to be suspended whilst an investigation was to take place over an incident that had occured whilst iwas on holiday, in the may i was then asked to meeting with david maine security ops manager? david asked me abot lock up procedures and my abilty to use the store cctv,i informed david that i was adebt at following people with cctv on the ground and baement floors but was confused with the cameras on floors 1 2and 3 david then asked me about my spending habits and the use of my store card i told david that since i had won the lottery 2 years before that i would go in to manchester during my breaks to spend my money and as i never payed my cards on time it was false economyto make purchases in store using mystore card in my first year with the store i spent over £20.000 using my card once for a pair of shoes that after staff discont cost me £17 but after eventuly paying the card bill cameto£33 false economy.that meeting ended and i was invited to second meeting where david asked me some questions one being about a bag of broken glass i had collected from royal doulton, i told david i couldnt recll what had happend to the bag of broken glass but would have presumed it would been taken to crusherthe meeting then ended.iwas then asked to attend a meeting with the store manager craig bedows and amember of hr team this meeting was about the bag of broken glass,mr beddows went on to inform me that he had seen a video of me puting on my coat picking up the bag of broken glass at 6.20pm then leaving the store with said broken glass, i told mr beddows this could not be the case as i did not finish work until 7.30 and that at 6.20 i would have been picking up the bag as iwould have been going to the loading bay to let out a member of managment and would have also put the bag in the crusher mr beddows again told me he had video evidence of me leaving the store with the bag,i then told mr beddows that i had not seen the video so icould not comment on it,mr beddows then asked me if i would like to see the video which accepted.we then went into the next room where david maine was and david talked me through video telling what iwas doing, in the last min of the film which has a time 620pm i put on my coatpick up bag and leave the office david then switches of thevideo and informs me that i then leave the store with the bag, i then asked to see the part of the video where i leave the store to be informed that the video cuts out, i then started to question david about the video but was ushered out of the room by mr beddows,in mr beddows office i said to mr beddows that if i was being accused of theft i would like the police to be informed and that i would prefer to be treated like the member of staff i had caught stealing from the company and going to courtmr beddows declined and closed the meeting iwas so anoyed with this i stormed out of the meeting forgeting to sign the investigation note.i lter asked for copies of the notes which still have and nowhere are mr beddows allegations or mr mains mentioned in the notes when iasked about thse allegations no one could recall making them,at the next meeting informed all conmcerned that the meetings where the managment team had lied and tried to force me to resign had been secretly recorded by my self and if they wanted what they could not supply a true and accurate stement i could supply it and i again asked for the police to be informed which mr beddows again turned down,eventualy i was dismissed from the company and took debenhams to an employment tribunal where iwas offered a settlement that far exceded what it would have cost.i am sure that if there are any untruths in this debenhams will no doubt wish to take me to court i still have my evidence and the tapes from all our meetings, on a final note the stock losses on my final year and the stocktake was 2 weeks before our suspentions stood at 520,0000 this was for 12month period where we were without cctv for4 months,there next stock take which was only for a 6month period stood at just over 700,000 and 6 months after that they lost another 500,000 to thefts and this is because a manager could not admit to being wrong