If I was fired for allegedly having someone punch my timecard in at work and I wasn’t there, can I be arrested or charged with something?
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If I was fired for allegedly having someone punch my timecard in at work and I wasn’t there, can I be arrested or charged with something?
They don’t know who did it and said they were going to call the police on me.
Asked on January 15, 2015 under Criminal Law, Indiana
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 9 years ago | Contributor
In theory, you can be arrested IF there is enough evidence--including the testimony of other people who believe you did this, or the testimony of the person who allegedly punched your timecard for you--to believe that you did this. However, while having someone punch your time card for you can technically be a crime (e.g. a form of theft or fraud--being paid for time you did not work), it is *very* unlikely that the police would take action for this, unless you are talking about multiple occurences, with the "theft of time" running into the many hundreds or even thousands of dollars. For a one-time occurence, it's much more likely that the police would say that this is a "civil" matter between you and your now-ex-employer--that is, something they could sue you over, such as to recover any money you should not have been paid. The police have many more urgent matters and crimes to deal with than assert time-clock fraud.
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