The answer is YES, regardless of your franchise, dealership structure, geographical location, or economic conditions.

All organizations will likely face some threat of occupational fraud or theft committed by employees—the very people entrusted with your business assets, profits and future.

Despite that dismal statement, dealerships are not completely powerless. While no one can completely prevent all acts of employee betrayal, dealerships can minimize the duration and resulting negative financial impact through heightened awareness, strong internal controls and establishing a strong ethical culture within the dealership.

Defending against this type of attack is crucial not only to the dealership’s sustainability and reputation for you and your successors, but also for the livelihoods of most employees who would never violate your trust.

Join me at NADA Show 2019 on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 10:30 a.m. for the workshop, Occupational Fraud in Modern Dealerships. We’ll discuss some cases of employee fraud that have occurred in the current high-tech and customer-centric dealership environment and how these losses could have been avoided or minimized.

Follow all things NADA Show on social media using the hashtag #NADASHOW on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Wines, a certified fraud examiner and certified F&I professional through the Association of Finance and Insurance Professionals, brings more than 30 years of retail-auto industry experience to NADA. She has extensive experience working as a controller for dealership groups of all sizes. Wines graduated from the NADA Academy in 2002. As a general manager for Hendrick Automotive Group, she returned to the NADA Academy in 2013 for the inaugural Hendrick Leadership Academy. Wines was selected for General Motors’ Women’s Retail Network in 2001 and completed GM’s Minority Dealer Development program. She obtained a BSBA in accounting from University of Central Florida and resides in Ashville, N.C., with her husband.