Dealer management system helps uncover £78,000 of satnav thefts

18 August 2009

 

Satnav system thefts totalling £78,000 have been uncovered this month by a dealer group using their new Pinewood dealer management system.

 

The group, which has asked to remain anonymous to the press, has half a dozen sites and three franchises.

 

Directors recently noticed a problem in their purchasing thanks to reports generated by their Pinnacle DMS. A parts manager appeared to have ordered a large number of satnavs over several years but in small enough quantities that the cost had not previously been noticed by management - a discrepancy that stood out as the group does not sell satnavs.

 

After being challenged, the parts manager admitted that he had been buying the systems to steal them and sell them on for some time, and was sacked for gross misconduct. The dealer group is exploring further legal options.

 

A director at the company said: "We were obviously shocked to find that a trusted company employee had been stealing stock to such a high accumulated value for such a long time.

 

"Only through adopting better technology that gave us much better access to information about our company in the shape of Pinnacle, could we see what was happening.

 

"Our previous financial systems were by no means lax, so we believe that similar thefts and fraud are possibly being committed in dealer groups across the country."

 

Neville Briggs, managing director at Pinewood, said: "Uncovering thefts and fraud using our technology is not uncommon. We have worked hard at producing DMS systems that create a high level of transparency across dealerships while also highlighting unusual practices. Sometimes these unusual practices indicate inefficiencies but in other cases there is sometimes criminal activity occurring."

 

 

 

For further details please contact Simon Wells at
Paperchase Public Relations on 01283 711311
or e-mail simon@paperchasepr.co.uk