We have had an employee abuse the company Credit card we gave them.

They racked $2000+ but under $5000 of unauthorized charges, mostly cash advances on our company CC.

We can not garnish their wages. They have admitted to the theft.

Other then a promissory note or taking them to small claims court is anything else we can do to recuperate out loss?

From Vancouver B.C

Why can't you garnish their wages? Is there a company policy with respect to the company charge cards? Many companies have employees sign an agreement when issued a card that they are responsible for unauthorized charges and such charges can be taken out of their pay.

There was no company policy in effect at the time of the theft that stated that we would garnish the employees wage.There is one now tho.Small claims court seems to be the only option.

Small claims will win you a judgment against the employee (assuming you can prove the theft). But that doesn't help you collect. Is the employee still working for you? What about getting the police involved? You could have him prosecuted for theft and ordered to reimburse the company or face jail time.

Employee has agreed to owing the money and abusing company credit card.
They where hoping to stay employed and work off the amount owed.
No longer employed for obvious reasons.

Looking into criminal charges but since we did not have a co policy on what is an acceptable charge onto the CC this might be a dead end.

Charges where cash withdrawals. We where hoping to deduct from pay as cash advances (with no previous written auth from employee to do so don't think this is not legal)
Payment on a personal phone bill.
Hotel and beer and wine store purchases.

Pressing charges may work but with no policy in place I don't know if the crown would move forward on this one or call it a personal dispute.

Charging cash advances and using the card to pay a personal bill would be clearly misuse of a company card. The hotel and liquor purchases might be shown to be business related. I would definitely talk to a local prosecutor to discuss criminal charges.

Thank you for your advice.

That will be my next move.

Sit down with the employee and have them sign to agree to pay so much from each check. Since criminal charges could be filed, they should be happy to do that.

If they are not willing to pay a certain amount from their pay each week, I would worry about their intent