Winnipeg police were called in after an external audit initiated by the hospital found irregularities. Police suggest the theft took place over a very long term and thus could add up to $2 million in losses from the hospital-owned ATM.

Thieves may have stolen a minimum of several hundred thousand dollars or as much as C$2 million (U.S. $1.9 million) from a nonbank-owned ATM deployed in the lobby of Misericordia Health Centre, said Constable Jason Michayshen of the Winnipeg Police Service.

“It is a large amount of money stolen from the ATM, and the theft is very significant and very concerning,” said Michayshen, who added that the thefts may have occurred over as many as 10 years.

This puts a nice perspective on the current skimming stories and threats to ATM that seem sophisticated by comparison; good old fashioned secure process and procedure for ATM deposits and withdrawals seem to be the problem. A lack of simple fraud monitoring and weak or no internal audits certainly did not help the situation.

Officials at Misericordia Health Centre must be taking a hard look at their audit and security management systems right now. I hope they have already initiated an extensive third-party review of patient files and confidentiality.