Had a similar situation at a firm I worked at a few years ago.
A staff member was caught stealing, the initial response was to sack and have the person charged. As the person had otherwise been a long term good employee it was decided to not proceed with criminal charges.
The person claimed unfair dismissal and won the case on the grounds that if the stealing was not serious enough to have criminal charges laid then it should not have been serious enough to justify dismissal.
As a result the police were brought in straight away to deal with any future cases of staff stealing.
