In English law, a secret profit is a profit made by an employee who uses his employer's premises and business facilities in order to engage in unauthorised trade on his own behalf.
[1][2][3] Where the employee deceived a customer before 15 January 2007 he could be prosecuted for obtaining property by deception, the property being the customer's money and the deception that he was selling his employer's produce.
[4] Such offences were predicated on the presumption that a customer would not purchase illicit goods were he aware of their true provenance.
Hence, it is theft from the employer and the profit is not merely a civil debt owed by the employee to the employer,[2] according to the case of FHR European Ventures LLP v Cedar Capital Partners LLC [2014] UKSC 45.
Where more than one person is involved there could be a conspiracy to defraud[7] and, since the coming into force of the Fraud Act 2006, the employee could be guilty of fraud by abuse of position.