We have an employee who has been accused of theft from our ‘customers’. The customers have called in the police. We have taken the decision to suspend him, on full pay, etc etc pending the completion of the investigation and a decision as to whether this should go to disciplinary.

In past roles, where police have been involved in matters where we have a potential disciplinary, we have always allowed the police to complete their investigations before we undertake ours. However, sometimes this took over 18 months.

Is this best practice? Should we wait for the police to finish before we start, accepting that it may take a long time, and memories may fade etc, or should we start the process now to seek a speedy resolution for the employee and ourselves?

I have advised that we wait for the police – but would like to know what others believe is the best approach.
K E B