Restitution Agreement for Membership Discounts

**ruffmeian** · 05-03-2011, 05:28 PM

My question involves criminal law for the state of: California

Today I just signed a restitution agreement. I don't want to specify for where, because I don't know if I can get in trouble for that. Basically, the restitution agreement is for applying discounts to people that I wasn't supposed to. I'm trying to explain this as perfectly as I can, I'm sorry if it'll be long and hard to understand but I really appreciate all feedback because I'm really scared.

We have a membership at my work that is 20 dollars to sign up. We were getting really hounded to get our numbers up and one of the girls I work with said that she offers to apply the additional 33% discount if they sign up for it. This is the same discount that every one of our members get as long as they are a member. They get it in their e-mail. I had mentioned to one of my managers who was also trying this to get her numbers up and she said "Oh, I'll have to try that.." Another thing, people would come up to me and say they had the discount in their e-mail but forgot to print it out. Or hey, can you apply the 33% discount for me please? My mom got one, and I'm a member too. Some people would say they really needed help on the pricing and they know we always have discounts, is there one available for you to use for me? Apparently, I was supposed to ask for manager approval every time someone asked for the discount but couldn't show proof. The reason I never asked is because I see other people not asking for approval. I don't wish to place the blame on anyone else, and take responsibility that I did it myself. That's just my reasoning, however construed it is now..

So I basically got called for a resitution agreement. I had admitted that I enticed membership upgrade with the discount, explained to him what initially started me doing that. I explained that I didn't ask for manager approval when people asked me to apply the discount. I explained that I didn't because I didn't know we had to, or that it was not allowed. The charges are 785.00 and I signed an agreement to pay it. He continued to ask if I ever stole money or gave merchandise away to friends or anyone I knew, and I said no never, because I never have intentionally. I'm scared. I've never been in trouble before and I'm afraid I'll go to jail or have a criminal record now.

Edit: Not really sure if this is the right place.. don't really know where else to put it..

**ruffmeian** · 05-03-2011, 08:24 PM

Can anyone please help or give some type of advice?

jk · 05-04-2011, 07:42 AM

there is no way to know what they will do. They may be satisfied with the restitution and that will be the end of it. If it is as you say, whether there would be any possibility of criminal charges is questionable. Generally, crimes require intent. While you intentionally gave discounts that you ultimately learned you were not allowed to do, as you explain it, it was with the belief it was a proper action. As such, there would be no criminal intent.

You don't mention if you still have a job. Were you fired or suspended?

Unless the employer believed there was criminal intent, I would not expect there to be police involvement and all that goes with that. If they believe it was criminal, obviously, the police may be paying you a visit. There is really no way to know what your employer will do here.

Have they said anything that would lead you to believe they believed it to be more than what you have already agreed to (the restitution)?

**ruffmeian** · 05-04-2011, 12:02 PM

Quoting jk

there is no way to know what they will do. They may be satisfied with the restitution and that will be the end of it. If it is as you say, whether there would be any possibility of criminal charges is questionable. Generally, crimes require intent. While you intentionally gave discounts that you ultimately learned you were not allowed to do, as you explain it, it was with the belief it was a proper action. As such, there would be no criminal intent.

You don't mention if you still have a job. Were you fired or suspended?

Unless the employer believed there was criminal intent, I would not expect there to be police involvement and all that goes with that. If they believe it was criminal, obviously, the police may be paying you a visit. There is really no way to know what your employer will do here.

Have they said anything that would lead you to believe they believed it to be more than what you have already agreed to (the restitution)?

They put me on suspension with pay. I'm to go in Saturday to see what happens, I guess.

He never mentioned anything about criminal charges, so I signed it feeling like this would resolve it. Obviously, I'm expected to be terminated. I've been advised to resign if they bring it up. Do you think that would be wise?

jk · 05-04-2011, 12:19 PM

well, if you resign, you have no chance at unemployment. If you are fired, if you can argue you followed the rules as you understood them, you might be eligible. Beyond that, if you resign, obviously you would be able to report that on future applications rather than you were fired. Without knowing more about the situation, it is impossible to guess which would be best for you.

the problem with signing a restitution agreement is it is a de facto confession of your guilt. The argument is: if you didn't do something wrong, then why are you willing to pay it back.

all you can do at this point is wait and see what happens.

**ruffmeian** · 05-04-2011, 12:47 PM

Quoting jk

well, if you resign, you have no chance at unemployment. If you are fired, if you can argue you followed the rules as you understood them, you might be eligible. Beyond that, if you resign, obviously you would be able to report that on future applications rather than you were fired. Without knowing more about the situation, it is impossible to guess which would be best for you.

the problem with signing a restitution agreement is it is a de facto confession of your guilt. The argument is: if you didn't do something wrong, then why are you willing to pay it back.

all you can do at this point is wait and see what happens.

I honestly don't care about unemployment. I just don't want a record.

=/ I was pretty naive on that fact. Honestly, when I was talking and writing my statement, I had admitted to him that I didn't know at the time it was wrong, and after speaking to him, realized that there was some huge miscommunication and now understood it was wrong. I hope I didn't set myself up for a big fall. =/

**ruffmeian** · 05-04-2011, 08:21 PM

Quoting ruffmeian

I honestly don't care about unemployment. I just don't want a record.

=/ I was pretty naive on that fact. Honestly, when I was talking and writing my statement, I had admitted to him that I didn't know at the time it was wrong, and after speaking to him, realized that there was some huge miscommunication and now understood it was wrong. I hope I didn't set myself up for a big fall. =/

Thank you. I actually went and called four attorney's today for free consults and they all got back to me. All of them said this is not a criminal case, and most likely cannot be fought for as a civil case due to the fact that I had been given some type of permission or had been trained improperly, and there was absolutely no criminal intent. One of them said, in the unlikelihood that for some reason they tried to arrest me on Saturday, we'll file a false arrest and get statements from other people I work with who are privy to differing statements from managers regarding the same type of policies and that would throw it out. Also, I did sign the restitution, but two of the mentioned some type of policy of signing something where you get nothing out of it. In this case, I did nothing wrong, and under legal naivety, signed something in which would not benefit me.

I was also encouraged to write a resignation letter now and give it to them before they have a chance to say anything to me.

So I hope this is what will happen.

**bam!** · 05-05-2011, 12:25 PM

I would resign and not pay a dime in restitution. You did not benefit from these markdowns, nor were they intentional for friends/family (IE you marked down a plasma TV to $1). You did this as an accomodation for the customer. As well all know in business the customer is always right.

The company can fire you, but legally they cannot collect restitution as they have to prove that you intentionally caused a loss to the company. It is much like the problem gas stations were having with drive offs. They could fire the attendants for failing to properly monitor the pumps, but they cannot legally take the money out of their pay/charge restitution for drive offs.