Payroll perils

I'm no stranger to losing a few quid to the odd bit of employee chicanery. So I was relieved to see that even a big-name vendor such as Avaya can fall prey to the same perils.

Anthony Armatys was offered a job at the firm seven years ago at the same time Avaya was in the process of updating its HR and payroll operations.

Ultimately, he decided not to take the post, so he must have been surprised when a pay cheque arrived soon after - more so when a second followed. The oversight was finally spotted almost five years later when Armatys tried to transfer a chunk of his company pension into his personal account. In the meantime, he'd pocketed nigh on $500,000.

Crikey - these big boys don't do things by halves. I thought I'd taken a hit when that gross of Post-it notes went missing last month.