Scottish Gas fires 50 over Winnie scam

SCOTTISH Gas has sacked more than 50 staff after workers were accused of stealing £27,000 by exploiting a glitch in the company's reward scheme.

The firm held dozens of disciplinary hearings after it discovered staff had been repeatedly buying Winnie the Pooh bracelets using the scheme.

The surge in orders came after sales staff discovered each order for a bracelet credited their accounts with £11.25 instead of debiting them.

Only five of the staff at the company's £20 million Granton headquarters who were interviewed are thought to have kept their jobs.

One employee, who still works at the company's Waterfront base, said parts of the office had been left "like a ghost town" following the mass firing.

She said other workers were left struggling to cope after the employees were told their fate at the end of last month.

The company said disciplinary procedures were continuing and stressed it took the allegations "extremely seriously".

It is believed the sacked staff still have the right to appeal against their dismissal, although it is unclear how many may have exercised that right.

Staff had been ordering the Winnie the Pooh bracelet from a website which they could access as part of the company's reward scheme. They were then able to convert the credits which they gained from making repeated orders into cash.

Thousands of the bracelets were ordered before managers discovered the problem.

One salesman is alleged to have made £9000 after "buying" more than 800 of the bracelets.

Colleagues said he used the windfall to pay off a car loan and buy a plasma television.

Another 21-year-old woman is said to have taken £650 after applying to buy more than 50 of the children's bracelets.

One employee said: "There were lots of rumours flying around about who was going to keep their jobs and who was out. We almost expected this but it was still a shock to see so many people gone like that. It was really sad as many have friends who are staying.

"No-one can quite believe it's went this far."

Another worker said: "The office was left like a ghost town. The company is going to have to replace all the people they sacked.

Someone said to me it was like Winnie Pooh getting his hand stuck in the honey pot and he was right."

The scam was said to have been an "open secret" in the office, with people "bragging about what they bought like they had won the lottery". When the scam was first discovered, Scottish Gas quickly suspended up to 90 sales staff, including some of its highest-performers. Many were escorted off the premises in tears.

A Scottish Gas spokesman said: "

Scottish Gas takes matters involving financial probity extremely seriously and we are taking appropriate action."

Each sales person is given cash for attracting a new customer to Scottish Gas as part of the reward scheme.

The money is put on a website called QDOS, run by a separate company, where the funds can be used to buy gifts from various high street stores.