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http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Former-Games-Workshop-boss-charged.6064639.jp

Sunderland Echo wrote:
Former Games Workshop boss charged with theft
Published Date: 11 February 2010

A former shop manager has appeared in court charged with stealing thousands from his employer.
Christopher Mark Ferguson is alleged to have stolen more than £8,000 from the Games Workshop in High Street West, Sunderland.

Prosecutor Lee Poppett told Sunderland Magistrates' Court yesterday that Ferguson is accused of taking £7,940 between October and November last year and £243 in January this year.

Defence solicitor Bill Scanlan said his client entered no plea to the charge.

Magistrates ruled the case was too serious for them to deal with and it was adjourned until April 7, when it will be committed to Newcastle Crown Court.

Ferguson, of Brandling Street, Sunderland, was released on unconditional bail.

I didn't even know the Mackems had a GW store! Typical that the first I know of it is because of the theiving boss! (P.s. I'm a Mag... Hugs and kisses to all my Mackem neighbours!)

Thats a lot to go missing in too short amount of time.

Ther figure are very 'exact' I think this may be corporate stock value, as evaluated by the company.

I am reading this as, the store back stock fell into my bag, every GW store has some, ripped boxes, damaged stock old store armies. a lot of them do go into bags, when its done by the front door and for everyone noone minds.

I am doubting this is a hand in the till job, no way would any manager who was not on drugs at the time would lucky dip that amount so quickly. Over two years I can believe it but not in a month.

I guess he was too good for his staff discount...

Orlanth wrote:I am doubting this is a hand in the till job, no way would any manager who was not on drugs at the time would lucky dip that amount so quickly. Over two years I can believe it but not in a month.

Unless he was very greedy and very stupid. Which being a Mackem, he may well be...

Kirby will have him strapped alive to the front of his new battlewagon a'la the Great Humongous!

He'll probably get a quick lobotomy before being sent to help shift crates around the warehouse

n0t_u wrote:He'll probably get a quick lobotomy before being sent to help shift crates around the warehouse

Don't you mean a second lobotomy. He's a GW manager, so chances are he's already had one.

*starts waiting for MDG or FW to appear*

Ah, I see, so they'll just repurpose this malfunctioning servitor then. Or recycle him so as to provide sustenance for the other servitors.

What did he steal?
and did he give a reason to why he did it?

He wanted to become "legendary" and thought this was the quickest way to go about it?!
But seriously why would he need to steal? Especially when he was being renumerated by the colossal sum of £14K per year...........

Slightly OT Where I used to live our Local GW had managers appear then disappear fro various infractions and thefts.

The last time my buddy went in he saw the 'new' staff unpacking lots of blisters and boxes, apparently the last lot hadn't been restocking the shelves and had months and months of stock stuck piling up n the stock room.

Not saying that All GW staff are nitwits but they do seem to have a high proportion of idiots.

Mr. Burning wrote:Not saying that All GW staff are nitwits but they do seem to have a high proportion of idiots.

Yeah... you're on your own with that one. I'd rather sit back and watch.

MDG in 5... 4... 3... 2...

That's hilarious. When I used to work for a certain fast food chain, I got to do the frozen foods order because the manager was too lazy to do it, so I always ordered a couple of extra packs of sausage patties and took them home. I also wrote up the usage sheet, so I was able to cover my tracks. Those were the days...

Osbad wrote:http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Former-Games-Workshop-boss-charged.6064639.jp

I didn't even know the Mackems had a GW store! Typical that the first I know of it is because of the theiving boss! (P.s. I'm a Mag... Hugs and kisses to all my Mackem neighbours!)

Hey Brah, I live in Whitley Bay. Personally I sometimes believe that we should show tolerance to Sunderland folk and treat them as if they were human.

How can this be? One of the most loyal missionaries of GW red book gospel... I'm very surprised.

I just heard about this, I worked with the guy years ago at metro. Am shocked. I dont know how he could expect to get away with it. Sunderland store only makes a few hundred a day.

It was always low on stock but still!

It is a 1 man store in Sunderland centre.

oh and he's a geordie not a mackem.

It's only £8000, what's that with GW prices today, about 2 boxes of Space Marines?

Always amuses me that people think they can get away with putting their hand in the till indefinitely. Once every so often perhaps, but a large sum of money over a period of time? The bean counters will always catch up with you.

I always think that stealing from the place you work is just plain stupid. I can't stand theiving full stop, but gakking on your own door step is painfully dumb. 9 times out of 10 you will get caught and that will result in you loosing your job and screwing up your chances of getting a new job because of references, or lack of. The age old excuse people give is that they aren't paid enoough, I say bull, it's down to greed.

However GW don't help themselves, as they pay such low amounts to those at managerial level they end up with two distinct types of managers. Type 1 are in it because they love the hobby. Type 2 are in it because they aren't good enough to manage anywhere else.
The type two's are the problem as they generaly see themselves as hard done by and their petty thievery as a way of "getting one back at the company which doesn't appreciate them" I am a firm believer that you are only as good as the job you do and the salary you earn, otherwise you would be doing as different job and earning a better salary instead of bitching about the one you already have.

GW are also known for putting staff in a position where they have to work extra, unsociable and often unhealthy hours for little recognition and low pay. Unfortuanatley this leads some of the less scrupulous staff members taking stock in lieu of percieved wages they should have recieved.

squilverine wrote:
However GW don't help themselves, as they pay such low amounts to those at managerial level.

GW are also known for putting staff in a position where they have to work extra, unsociable and often unhealthy hours for little recognition and low pay. Unfortuanatley this leads some of the less scrupulous staff members taking stock in lieu of percieved wages they should have recieved.

Management salaries in retail and leisure have never been that great anyway. I was paid about 13-15K as an Assistant Manager for Odeon. I'm not sure this is a specifically GW fault... Feel free to debate me though

Flashman wrote:

squilverine wrote:
However GW don't help themselves, as they pay such low amounts to those at managerial level.

GW are also known for putting staff in a position where they have to work extra, unsociable and often unhealthy hours for little recognition and low pay. Unfortuanatley this leads some of the less scrupulous staff members taking stock in lieu of percieved wages they should have recieved.

Management salaries in retail and leisure have never been that great anyway. I was paid about 13-15K as an Assistant Manager for Odeon. I'm not sure this is a specifically GW fault... Feel free to debate me though

I agree that certain other sectors have similar low rates of pay, but these are reflected in the employee retention rates and this in turn reflects on areas such as customer service. Where I work one of our main clients is a large supermarket chain, the supermarket industry realised a long time ago that in order to get the best managers they needed to offer the best rates. GW expect a hell of a lot from their managers (and staff in general) for the money they pay.

LunaHound wrote:What did he steal?
and did he give a reason to why he did it?

Money by the looks of it. Then again if it was money, as indicated in the text, I can't see how that would be possible.

and £8k over barely a month or two - there must have been a reason behind it.

@ Squilverine - I guess with any business you pay what you think you can get away with. I don't think upper management cared much about retention at Odeon because there was always somebody ready to fill a position (it was one company where you could really shoot up the ladder if you wanted to). I can't comment on what the GW situation is like, as never worked there.

On a related note, I once did a shift at another site and didn't do a safe check at the end of the night. The manager on duty the following morning phoned me to say that the safe was £1000 short. I'm not convinced he took it (and I certainly didn't), but got myself out of hot water by declaring the situation to upper management straight away whereas he wanted to mess about and go through waster paper bins ("Yes Ian, I took £1000 and threw it in the bin for laughs"). In the disciplinary proceedings that followed I got a written warning for "not following procedure" and he got a final written warning. Never worked out why he got the worse end of the deal...

A final written warning is usually preceded by several verbal and written warnings. I would assume he had a track record of such stunts occurring.

A lot of British businesses are just stupid about the way they manage staff. John Lewis is a sadly rare example of how to get it right. Their staff retention rate is much higher than most retail. As a result they not only save plenty on recruitment costs, they have a better informed and more dedicated workforce, which translates to better customer satisfaction and a higher profit rate.

Happens a lot believe me. This is somewhat common though I seldom hear of anyone stealing that much that fast. I did hear frommy old regional that one guy took 50k(here in the states) over two months. He just never turned in the deposits....can you say FELONY CHARGES

Here's a Memphis dirty little secret. They had a tool that was working at the facility who was was selling Forge World on ebay. Problem was that he was 'acquiring' them from the HC, having HC employees on the clock paint them up to order (under the guise that they were for customers; they were, his), and then shipping them out via the warehouse on GW's dime. When he was finally busted, they swept it under the rug and the guy just got to walk away because he was in good with the mangement.

With regard to the original story, it's not so much product to walk away with given the exhorbitant pricing schedule.

theres more to this than we know.

Chris is not stupid enough to think he can lift 8k in months and not be caught. A quick calculation shows that to be over 1/3 of the average takings.

He's a family man so perhaps theres circumstances here and innocent till proven guilty of course.

sleazy wrote:oh and he's a geordie not a mackem.

Well, he might have been *born* one, but pulling a stunt like that? He's sure naturalised to classic Mackem levels of stupidity pretty fast, living and working there! If he's found guilty of course...

sleazy wrote:theres more to this than we know.

Chris is not stupid enough to think he can lift 8k in months and not be caught. A quick calculation shows that to be over 1/3 of the average takings.

He's a family man so perhaps theres circumstances here and innocent till proven guilty of course.

Of course but remember that people can and will surprise you with their actions.
Maybe it's in protest over having to meet excessive Razorgor sales targets?!

I'm with the others in this thread on thinking the guy had a sudden and urgent need for money. A guy in EVE stole all his corp's assets, according to him to pay for his wife's surgery. Maybe a similar thing?