Criminal Damage claim?? advice please.
Discussion
Hi, I'm the I.T Manager at my firm, and one of our employees had a bit of a bust up with his other half. In a moment of rage she through his works laptop into a wheelie bin, on a cold and wet evening.
When he brought the laptop into work the next day, and it's been hosed by his other halve's actions. They have now seperated and i'm wondering if we have any legal claim against her, for her actions of that evening. We're talking about £1500 for the notebook, and about 1k for data recovery.
I've got better things to spend 2.5k on out of my budget this year!!
When he brought the laptop into work the next day, and it's been hosed by his other halve's actions. They have now seperated and i'm wondering if we have any legal claim against her, for her actions of that evening. We're talking about £1500 for the notebook, and about 1k for data recovery.
I've got better things to spend 2.5k on out of my budget this year!!
K77-widow maker said:
Hi, I'm the I.T Manager at my firm, and one of our employees had a bit of a bust up with his other half. In a moment of rage she through his works laptop into a wheelie bin, on a cold and wet evening.
When he brought the laptop into work the next day, and it's been hosed by his other halve's actions. They have now seperated and i'm wondering if we have any legal claim against her, for her actions of that evening. We're talking about £1500 for the notebook, and about 1k for data recovery.
I've got better things to spend 2.5k on out of my budget this year!!
Make a complaint to the police for criminal damage.When he brought the laptop into work the next day, and it's been hosed by his other halve's actions. They have now seperated and i'm wondering if we have any legal claim against her, for her actions of that evening. We're talking about £1500 for the notebook, and about 1k for data recovery.
I've got better things to spend 2.5k on out of my budget this year!!
SLCZ3 said:
Who is the owner of the notebook, they are the one to make the complaint.
"Works [sic] laptop". In passing, £1,500 for a laptop PC is steep (we buy top of the range Lenovos - that would probably survive being chucked in the back of the dust-cart, let alone a wheely-bin! - for £650 each). Whereas, £1,000 for "data recovery" is cheap (albeit, it depends on data volume, elapsed time to recover and the effort required). Mind you ... the data should have been backed-up before they left the office - Streakystreaky said:
SLCZ3 said:
Who is the owner of the notebook, they are the one to make the complaint.
"Works [sic] laptop". In passing, £1,500 for a laptop PC is steep (we buy top of the range Lenovos - that would probably survive being chucked in the back of the dust-cart, let alone a wheely-bin! - for £650 each). Whereas, £1,000 for "data recovery" is cheap (albeit, it depends on data volume, elapsed time to recover and the effort required). Mind you ... the data should have been backed-up before they left the office - Streaky
As has been said before, what needs to happen first is get an exact total to replace the laptop and data.
I would have thought that most IT departments should be able to get a hard drive out of a laptop and retrieve anything useful.
There is also the factor in that if it was anything mission critical the cost to the business could be a lot more than the cost of the laptop, so if it is not mission critical it may be best left and a new laptop installed from scratch.
With regard to the replacement cost, I completely agree. If it were my company I would be furious if this cost was to come from my pocket, therefore I think there are two ways forward.
Firstly, I would hope in the employees contract that they should take reasonable care of the laptop and should be responsible for it whilst in their care. Dependent on the contract, the employee may be liable. Indeed, if he is contractually liable he would be able to sue his ex for his loss due to her actions.
The only other way forward would be the criminal damage claim. This would mean going to the police for a start. The next port of call would be to either let the criminal case take its course and hope you get compensated, or to start a civil claim.
The civil claim would be quite straightforward, but it would most likely mean that you wont get your money in one go, it will be a t a rate at which the defendant says they can afford. This might be £50 a month or less.
It depends what kind of company you work for. The principles involved would for me to start the claim directly against the ex so that there is no bad feeling in chasing the employee for the cost, even though this may be a more successful route.
I would have thought that most IT departments should be able to get a hard drive out of a laptop and retrieve anything useful.
There is also the factor in that if it was anything mission critical the cost to the business could be a lot more than the cost of the laptop, so if it is not mission critical it may be best left and a new laptop installed from scratch.
With regard to the replacement cost, I completely agree. If it were my company I would be furious if this cost was to come from my pocket, therefore I think there are two ways forward.
Firstly, I would hope in the employees contract that they should take reasonable care of the laptop and should be responsible for it whilst in their care. Dependent on the contract, the employee may be liable. Indeed, if he is contractually liable he would be able to sue his ex for his loss due to her actions.
The only other way forward would be the criminal damage claim. This would mean going to the police for a start. The next port of call would be to either let the criminal case take its course and hope you get compensated, or to start a civil claim.
The civil claim would be quite straightforward, but it would most likely mean that you wont get your money in one go, it will be a t a rate at which the defendant says they can afford. This might be £50 a month or less.
It depends what kind of company you work for. The principles involved would for me to start the claim directly against the ex so that there is no bad feeling in chasing the employee for the cost, even though this may be a more successful route.
JustinP1 said:
The only other way forward would be the criminal damage claim. This would mean going to the police for a start. The next port of call would be to either let the criminal case take its course and hope you get compensated, or to start a civil claim.
Actually, I would suggest letting the criminal case go ahead, and if she is convicted, use that conviction under S11 of the Civil Evidence Act in a subsequent small claim you take out against her, to recover full value....Jasandjules said:
JustinP1 said:
The only other way forward would be the criminal damage claim. This would mean going to the police for a start. The next port of call would be to either let the criminal case take its course and hope you get compensated, or to start a civil claim.
Actually, I would suggest letting the criminal case go ahead, and if she is convicted, use that conviction under S11 of the Civil Evidence Act in a subsequent small claim you take out against her, to recover full value....However, after all this, if the defendant ends up paying a tenner a month, and the company has to chase this up, it would be a bit annoying.
Ah, sorry, I didn't read it like that...
He'd have three years though at least I think so, and I can't imagine (though no doubt I'm wrong) that any criminal damage case would go that long, also, I'd be an optimist and hope plod just gave her a caution......
And of course, with a CCJ, the company can send in the bailiffs, I am not sure that she would get the chance to pay £2 a week or whatever like she would with any criminal damage fine.... I could be wrong though !!
He'd have three years though at least I think so, and I can't imagine (though no doubt I'm wrong) that any criminal damage case would go that long, also, I'd be an optimist and hope plod just gave her a caution......
And of course, with a CCJ, the company can send in the bailiffs, I am not sure that she would get the chance to pay £2 a week or whatever like she would with any criminal damage fine.... I could be wrong though !!
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