The public employee who abuses the internet at work commits embezzlement
The crime of embezzlement against a public employee who abuses time on the web, stealing more time than money from the employer, is an issue that has recently attracted the attention of the Court of Cassation, VI criminal section. Ruling 40702/2023 of 5 October provides important clarifications on this matter.
In the case in question, a former purchasing manager in a public-private spa was the subject of an appeal by the company itself, accused of having committed embezzlement. The employee was initially acquitted at first instance and the appeal for civil purposes was rejected. However, the Supreme Court upheld the company's appeal, confirming that the worker's behavior constituted embezzlement.
The crime of embezzlement occurs when a public employee improperly uses public resources or assets for personal purposes, causing damage to the public body or company. In this specific case, the manager spent much of his working hours surfing the Internet for personal interests, including military history and adult sites. The result was that his company computer contained more private material than company documents.
The employee's defense had argued that the offending files, in particular videos and photos of adult content, could have been transferred to the company PC from a portable device with full memory. However, the IT report demonstrated that the use of the service computer for personal purposes was not at all "episodic and modest", but rather systematic.
One of the key points of the Supreme Court's decision concerned the economic damage to the company. Although the flat connection fee did not fully cover personal use of the computer, the trial judges had initially held that economic damage was excluded. However, the Supreme Court reasoned that the problem was not just the cost of the connection, but also the fact that the employee was neglecting his work responsibilities for a significant period of time.
The manager, in fact, spent at least four or five hours a day on the Internet for personal purposes, which, according to the Court of Cassation, probably created an organizational dysfunction within the company. In other words, his behavior was taking away time and resources that should have been devoted to work.
The Supreme Court ruling clarified that embezzlement can be excluded only if the improper use of service goods is episodic and occasional and does not compromise the functionality of the entity or company. In the manager's case, frequent and systematic browsing for personal purposes clearly had a significant impact on business operations.
The case is now pending before the competent civil judge for appeal, but the Supreme Court ruling has established an important precedent on the issue of embezzlement and has underlined the importance of adequate use of company resources by the public and private employees.
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The article The public employee who abuses the internet at work commits embezzlement comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-dipendente-pubblico-che-abusa-di-internet-al-lavoro-commette-peculato/ on Fri, 06 Oct 2023 14:44:13 +0000.