Hi, recently one of my friends had her job at a retail store terminated when they found out that she was abusing the employee discount and stealing clothing in order to resell them on places likes eBay. From what she told me, on her last day, when she was confronted by the manager, she was brought into a room and interrogated. From what I gathered, the interrogation was performed by the manager and the assistant manager, with the remote help and guidance of people at the company headquarters via conference call. She admitted to the accusations, which were abusing the employee discount to resell and to stealing under $2000 worth of merchandise. She agreed to their request to pay back about $1000 in fines and to having her position terminated immediately. They told her that since she was such a great employee despite these actions, she would not be criminally charged and this would be a purely civil matter, something to do with "civil code" (what she told me she heard them say). She was free to walk out of the store and that was the last of that.

She was not arrested.
She was not fingerprinted.
She has no court date, nor a mention of court being required.
She has no follow up.
She is 23 years old.

My question is, what exactly happened in the eyes of the law? Does she have a criminal record, or perhaps a note on some other record. Civil charges? Also, when she applies for a new job elsewhere, upon a full background check, will anything related to this event be brought up? Does this affect her credit rating?

Thanks so much for your time in reading my question and thanks in advance for you reply

There is no criminal record, since there was no criminal charges, Since she agreed to pay ( assuming she hurries up and pays) the store will just give her a bad reference anytime anyone checks with them.

This also was not done in civil court so there is no court record what so ever. There will be a record at the stores security office, the local store and the corporate office.

Unless you are not telling us something, it does not show up on any background search, ( assuming she does everything asked and the store does not have to take her to court for payment

Thanks Fr_Chuck. Everything I know was in that question I asked. I already assumed she would get a bad reference, but even then, I think they might not disclose that event to someone asking for a reference, unless directly asked about anything bad she might have done or why she no longer works there. But maybe I'm just being to naïve.

So, to just get this straight, without police involvement, an arrest, and/or a court date even so much as to plead guilty, there is no criminal record, and this event will be undetected by a background check.

Thanks.

If a future employer were to call for a reference they might ask:
Is she eligible for rehire?