Branch Manager cons IT Vendor
By Sunil Sharma

The Branch Manager of a leading IT Vendor in Kerala has been arrested on charges of swindling money from his employer. Haby Thomas (Thomson), the Branch In-charge of Focuz Computers’ Calicut Branch, was arrested by the Kerala Police last Wednesday (22nd October) for cheating about Rs.12.5 lakhs from the company.  The arrest has sent shock waves through the respected company.

The company is still checking the accounts of the Calicut Branch and this figure might go up.

Haby, a Mechanical Engineer with an MBA (well, that’s what his profile on Orkut says), was employed with highly regarded Focuz Computers for the last one year. He duped the company by forging payment records in computers and used to sell IT products without issuing invoices or bills. He also forged bank pay-in slips and fiddled the stock statements. He is also accused of rolling cash (receipts) for about ten days. Payments received were shown on the company’s account books only after about ten days. This gave him enough time to use the money for personal purposes. Surprisingly, these adjustments and the cash rolling could not be found by the Company’s Auditors. It was only when some personal complaints came that the company started keeping a track of his activities.

“It was sheer luck that we could get Haby before he could flee from Calicut”, said Santosh Pillai, Business Manager, Focuz Computers. “He has absolutely no liability there and he could have disappeared very easily, had he got wind of our investigation. He is said to have a very lavish lifestyle with a love for flashy cars and girlfriends”, Santosh told Techgoss while speaking from Kochi. The Company normally does not do extensive background checks while employing a new person but looks like they have learnt a lesson.

Focuz Computers is the Computer and Peripheral arm of the Rs.250 crore Focuz Group who are into Information Technology, Automobiles and Tourism. They are the largest chain of PC resellers in the state of Kerala with 10 locations.