A few weeks ago, myself and a fellow server were assigned to a business celebration in our private dining room. Over the course of the night, the group was very concerned about keeping within their budget, to the point of haggling with our MOD about bringing their minimum down $100.

Along with the copious amounts of alcohol they all consumed (only one person had fewer than four drinks), we're faily certain multiple members of the party were participating in recreational drug use. Multiple times throughout the night, we saw pairs slip into the same bathroom stall. Our theory was that they were given a budget from their company to spend on this celebration dinner and proceeded to spend an inordinate amount on drugs, which explained their need to haggle over the minimum.

After they leave, I check the receipt to see that they tipped double on top of the 20% gratuity already included for the large party. And it wasn't like they wrote the gratuity amount listed on the check. The number written on the tip line was actually a few dollars more, the math all checked out, signed legibly. I punched the tip into the system, went home feeling good about myself, and got my cash the next day, which is how our tips system operated.

Last night, I get to work, and the other server from the party tells me that the group disputed the tip with corporate and they agreed to pay the refund. Since this party happened, corporate has now shifted to giving us our tips biweekly through direct deposit as part of our paychecks.

What I'm asking is not only should I be worried about corporate trying to pull that refund from my paycheck from under my nose, but is is even legal for them to do this. The physical cash is already in my bank account, but if they try to make me pay it back, do I have any ground to stand on? I live in Florida.

Tldr: Large party tipped double on top of auto-grat and is now disputing it. Corporate agreed to refund the dispute. Should I be worried about them withdrawing the refund from my paycheck? Is that even legal?