News: Employer Failure
Overseas
- Australia: Fake Psychologist fools NSW Health authorities for 12 years
- UK: Increase in dishonesty cases sparks vetting call by Social Workers' Regulator
- Let the employer beware. Never go without reference checking - due diligence will pay off
- UK: Woman employed on the basis of fraudulent reference
- USA: Bank Teller pleads guilty to stealing $7 million, bankrupts employer
- USA: Jury awards $12 million against company that failed to undertake pre-employment check
- UK: Home Office faces cover-up claims over vetting
- UK: "Lacklustre accounting" blamed for £17,000 theft
- Ireland: Academic resigns after three year-old sex conviction discovered
- Singapore: Hotel chain CEO quits after fraudulent CV uncovered
- UK: Insurance company fined £20,000 for employing fraudster
- USA: Dean resigns for falsifying resume for more than 27 years
Overseas improvements
- UK: Police to assist companies with combating employee fraud
- UK: Being in the know
- UK: More than 6,000 criminals applied to work with children during 2008
- UAE imposes life ban on job applicants using fake qualifications
- UK: All National Health Service staff to undergo vetting
- UK: Personal identity checks for Doctors
- India: Fake CV’s - Firms increase check points
- British Police reject over 400 job applicants in last three years
- UK: Employee fraud harming small firms
- USA: 10 things a corporate should do to protect itself and its employees from Identity Theft
- Canada: 'Didn't you check?': A bad hire can be catastrophic to a businesses' reputation
- USA: More firms doing checks on applicants
- Check your references!
- UK: Background checking for contractors
- UK: Vetting legislation
Overseas
Australia: Fake Psychologist fools NSW Health authorities for 12 years
4 October 2009
A man posing as a Psychologist was able to fool New South Wales health authorities for over 12 years, with a PhD he bought for $249 over the internet.
Using the alias Dr David Kaye, 45-year-old Turkish-born Ali Davut Sarikaya was allowed to treat police officers, prison guards, public servants and senior legal figures who were referred to his practice in central Sydney with the approval of the state Government.
In 2006 he was appointed to the NSW Department of Health’s Official Visitors Program entitling him to make regular visits to patients in psychiatric facilities.
Sarikaya, who was arrested as he was about to board a plane for a flight to New Zealand, has been charged with 26 offences. He has earlier convictions for fraud committed in Victoria, in 1994.
UK: Increase in dishonesty cases sparks vetting call by Social Workers' Regulator
28 May 2009
The General Social Care Council (GSCC), the organisation in England responsible for registering Social Workers and regulating their training and conduct, has told employers to tighten vetting procedures to stem the growing number of social workers being disciplined for dishonest behaviour.
In the past 12 months, six Social Workers and one student have been struck off for breaching the Council's code of practice, requiring honest and trustworthy conduct. Four others have been suspended or admonished.
Offences included abusing patient trust, faking qualifications and failing to disclose past misconduct to employers and the GSCC. During 2007-8, there was just one removal and one admonishment for similar types of misconduct.
Rosie Varley, chair of the GSCC, has written to managers to remind them of their responsibilities under their code of practice. This includes a duty to ensure that only suitable people are allowed into the profession, by thoroughly checking all applications and references.
In the latest hearing, Martha Wright of Manchester, was struck off in April for stealing nearly £5,000 (NZ$12,800) from a mentally disabled client.
Last year Allan Beard, a Cornwall social work student was removed from the register after falsely claiming that he had been a law lecturer in 1997. In fact, he had been serving a prison sentence for fraud.
Since the GSCC's conduct system began in 2006, fifteen of the 74 hearings have concerned dishonesty.
Let the employer beware. Never go without reference checking - due diligence will pay off
20 April 2009
Research carried out by specialist recruitment group Randstad amongst more than 1000 organisations across the Asia Pacific region found that 26 per cent reported suffering an incident with an employee because they had not checked their references properly. Fourteen percent claimed their corporate reputation was damaged. View article>>
UK: Woman employed on the basis of fraudulent reference
31 October 2008
A British company, “The Richardsons Group” estimates it lost £380,000 (NZ$1.04 million) after it employed a woman without verifying her nominated referee was who she claimed him to be.
Angela Wheeler applied for the position of Operations Manager in 2006 and in support of her application included a referee by the name of “Tony Sinclair”, who she said was a former colleague at “Green King”.
When contacted by telephone, “Sinclair” gave a glowing reference and Wheeler was subsequently appointed by The Richardson Group to the £45,000 (NZ$123,000) a year job.
However, during the 18 months that 48 year-old Wheeler worked for the company her poor business decisions resulted in it conservatively costing the company NZ$1.04 million.
When the company made further enquiries into Wheeler’s background it discovered the referee “Sinclair” had never worked for Green King and that whilst Wheeler had worked for Green King, the company was not at all satisfied with her performance.
Wheeler subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of obtaining a pecuniary advantage by deception. The Richardson Group said it would not have employed Wheeler had it not been for the glowing telephone reference.
Wheeler also pleaded guilty to receiving £9,000 (NZ$24,600) in welfare payments whilst working for the Richardsons Group. She was ordered to repay the £9,000, sentenced to 40 weeks imprisonment, suspended for two years, and fined £5,000 (NZ$13,600).
USA: Teller pleads guilty to stealing $7 million, bankrupts employer
24 February 2008 – The Courier-Journal
For almost four years, Patricia Helen Sherman hid stacks of $100 bills in her pockets and carried them out of the Obelisk Federal Credit Union in New Albany Indiana where she worked as head teller. Sherman, 50, of Louisville, eventually took $7 million - an average of $152,454 a month - and gambled most of it away at Ohio River casinos.
The staggering scale of the theft - estimated by the FBI to be one of the largest embezzlements against a U.S. financial institution by an employee - stunned co-workers and employees.
Federal investigators declined to comment on why Obelisk's internal controls took so long to discover that money was missing. The embezzlement occurred over 46 months starting around June 2003, officials say.
PVL Comment: Sherman has since been sentenced to eight years prison . The theft eliminated the 70 year-old Credit Union’s net worth and it was lated liquidated.
USA: Jury awards $12 million against company that failed to undertake pre-employment check
18 January 2008
A jury awarded US$12 million dollars to the mother of a woman who was raped and murdered in 2004. A lawsuit filed on behalf of the victim’s mother contended that the killer was Eriberto Rodriguez, a maintenance worker employed at the victim’s apartment complex.
Rodriguez was convicted in 2006 of burgling apartments in the complex and sexually battering a housekeeper. He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. The Police said he was the only suspect in the rape and murder of the woman in 2004.
The lawsuit blamed the woman’s death on the lack of a background check before Rodriguez, already a convicted felon and registered sex offender, was hired and given access to all the apartments.
The plaintiff’s lawyer said if the company had undertaken a pre employment check it would have learnt of Rodriguez’s criminal history and not employed him, and the plaintiff’s daughter would still be alive today. The jury agreed.
UK: Home Office faces cover-up claims over vetting
13 November 2007
The Home Office has been criticised following claims of a cover-up regarding the revelation that up to 5,000 illegal immigrants may have been granted licences allowing them to work in the British private security industry. The Home Office had earlier been alerted to the matter in July but implemented a news blackout on the disclosure.
It was later forced to admit that one illegal immigrant had been guarding the Prime Minister's car. Last year the Home Office discovered it was employing illegal immigrants as cleaners in the Immigration Department itself.
The Security Industry Authority, (SIA) the agency responsible for issuing security guard licenses (and for reporting to the Home Office) denied it had a legal responsibility to verify that applicants were lawfully entitled to work in England, claiming that it was the responsibility of the employer.
Nonetheless the Authority wrote to 11,000 licence holders informing them of its intention to revoke their licences within 21 days unless they could demonstrate their right to work in the UK. Further, the Authority has now commenced checking the immigration status of all applicants with the UK Border & Immigration Agency.
PVL Footnote (5 November 2008): The head of the SIA resigned today after it emerged that 38 of his own staff had been employed without themselves being vetted.
The Home Office is reviewing all decisions made by staff who were not vetted and at least one employee has since failed a security check.
The previous month, the Audit Office accused the SIA of overspending by £17 million (NZ$45.8 million).
UK - "Lacklustre accounting" blamed for £17,000 theft
15 August 2007
The lawyer who defended a 26-year-old secretary charged with stealing £17,680 from her employer said the woman exploited a "culture of lacklustre accounting" to fund her world travels.
New Zealander Nicola Fielding worked for 11 months at JP Morgan and was responsible for processing expense claims and providing petty cash to staff undertaking business trips to Italy. Unspent money was returned to her but instead of accounting for the money she took it to a bureau de change twice a month and deposited it into her bank account.
She used the money to pay for her, and her boyfriend, to take a string of trips in a nine month period, to New York, Turkey, Scotland, Ireland and other destinations
The lawyer cited the "accounting in general" at her office as making the thefts easy and it meant they "didn't stand out as much as perhaps it would have done at another organisation".
Fielding, who had earned £400 per week whilst working at JP Morgan, was sentence to a 51-week suspended sentence, ordered to pay back £2,500 and complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
JP Morgan is a global financial services firm and is part of JP Morgan Chase which has assets of $1.4 trillion world wide.
PVL Footnote (3 April 2008): Eight months later, the Judge issued an arrest warrant against Fielding. It emerged she had attended an induction meeting with the Probabtion Service but then failed to turn up at ten community work sessions that had been scheduled for her. She is believed to have fled England and to now be living in Europe.
Ireland: Academic resigns after three year-old sex conviction discovered
15 July 2007
A Government enquiry was launched into how Dr Niall McElwee, the Irish Director of a child care services centre, was able to remain employed despite being convicted of a sexual offence three years earlier, and despite the Garda (Police) having informed the Health Board of the sexual offence at the time.
McElwee resigned after an anonymous tip-off led his employer to becoming aware of the 2004 Netherlands conviction.
The college lecturer had been on a visit to Amsterdam to study drug addiction when it was alleged that he had been involved in an attempted sexual offence against a group of American girls, aged 15 to 18, on 24 June 2004. McElwee was convicted in Holland of attempted indecent assault after forcing one of the girls, through acts of violence, to endure lewd acts. He was given a three month suspended prison sentence and fined €2,000.
Singapore: Hotel chain CEO quits after fraudulent CV uncovered
14 June 2007
Patrick Imbardelli, the 46 year-old Australian chief executive of Asia Pacific for Intercontinental Hotels resigned following the discovery that he had lied about his academic qualifications.
Imbardelli had been due to be promoted to the board of InterContinental, which owns the Holiday Inn and Crown Plaza chains, at the start of July. Earlier in 2006, Imbardelli, had been named Asia Pacific hotelier of the year. He had been appointed managing director of InterContinental's Asia Pacific business in 2003. Prior to that he held a number of management posts with Hilton, Hyatt and Southern Pacific Hotels.
Imbardelli, who joined InterContinental in 2000, told the company when he applied for his job that he had three university degrees - a BA from Victoria University in Australia, a BSc and an MA from Cornell University in America.
However, Imbardelli never graduated from any of the institutions.
UK: Insurance company fined £20,000 for employing fraudster
28 April 2007
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) imposed a penalty of £20,000 on insurance intermediary Besso Ltd, for failing to apply for approval of an employee who held a significant management role at the company.
The employee had previous convictions for fraud and is also alleged to have perpetrated various frauds while he was employed within the Besso group. Had the FSA received an application for approval, the previous convictions could have been detected at an earlier stage and the fraudulent behaviour may have been prevented.
USA: Dean resigns for falsifying resume for more than 27 years
26 April 2007
Marilee Jones, Dean of Admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who spoke publicly against students inflating their resumés, resigned after 28 years at the MIT for lying about her academic qualifications.
Jones was first hired by MIT as an entry level Admissions Officer in 1979, being later promoted to Associate Director of Admissions, and she served as the Dean of Admissions on an interim basis between May 1997 until January 1998 when she was appointed to the position full-time.
She claimed on her resume that she had degrees from Albany Medical College, Union College, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, but she had no degrees from any of those institutions
Jones said "I misrepresented my academic degrees when I first applied to MIT 28 years ago and did not have the courage to correct my resume when I applied for my current job or at any time since." She had applied in 1997 for her current job, where she had become the most prominent Admissions Director in the USA. Jones kept a popular blog and spoke widely about restoring the joys of youth to young people obsessed with their resumes.
Officials only undertook a verification of her qualifications when they received a phone call from a person who questioned her credentials.
Overseas improvements
UK: Police to assist companies with combating employee fraud
16 June 2009
The Metropolitan Police, in cooperation with British employment screening companies have established a forum to share advice and information, and improve the awareness of the importance of employment screening in combating the increasing prevalence of employee fraud.
The Police estimate that fraud costs British employers £20 billion (NZ$43 billion) a year, and that an organisation's own employees are responsible for the majority of fraud-related crime. The Police also believe many business failures are attributable to fraudulent activity by senior executives.
The aim of the forum, Protecting Employers From Internal Threats (PREFIT) is to facilitate the sharing of information and good practice between employers, employment screening companies, investigators, and the Police.
UK: Being in the know
May 2009 www.healthbusinessuk.com
While businesses outsourcing their employee screening have increased sevenfold in the past five years, there are still plenty of HR departments and recruitment agencies wide open to applicant fraud. Perhaps your organisation is one of them?
Read article>>
UK: More than 6,000 criminals applied to work with children during 2008
24 February 2009
The United Kingdom’s Criminal Records Bureau, the agency responsible for vetting applications from people wanting to work with children and vulnerable people has released figures, under the Freedom of Information Act, revealing 6,750 people with criminal records last year applied for jobs working with children.
They included convicted paedophiles, killers and kidnappers, flashers, child beaters and drug dealers. Two people had convictions for taking indecent photographs of children and four had been convicted of manslaughter.
A Home Office spokesman admitted they had no figures to show if any of these individuals actually obtained teaching positions. The Secretary of State for Children has demanded an investigation.
UAE imposes life ban on job applicants using fake qualifications
1 October 2008
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has decided to impose a lifetime ban on the entry of foreign workers found to have used fake qualifications to secure employment in the country.
UAE businesses will also be able to sue for compensation against an employee discovered to have been hired on the basis of bogus qualifications.
Under UAE law, using fake documents is a punishable offence that can lead to a fine of up to 20,000 dirhams (NZ$9,500) and prison term of up to three years.
UK: All National Health Service staff to undergo vetting
1 April 2008
The British Government has introduced mandatory vetting of all NHS employees. The checks have been introduced following the failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow last summer when it emerged that the key suspects had come to the UK to work in the NHS.
The checks will include verification of identity, right to work, registration and qualification, employment history and references, criminal records checks and occupational health checks.
UK: Personal identity checks for Doctors
18 March 2008
Medical Doctors seeking new employment are to be required to participate in mandatory face-to-face identity checks before being appointed to National Health Service positions.
The new pre-employment check standards have been imposed as a means of supporting employers who have to meet all of the legal requirements of vetting staff to be able to give safe assurance to the public, patients and other staff.
From April, employers will be required to meet a European standard of identity verification, which includes:
• a face-to-face identity check
• verification of identity
• right to work
• registration and qualification
• employment history and references
• criminal records checks
• occupational health checks
India: Fake CV’s - Firms increase check points
22 February 2008 -The Times of India
The mass recruitment phenomenon in IT/ITeS, BPO, financial services, telecom and retail sectors has led to a spurt of false CVs and fake candidates.
A number of players, including big ones like KPMG and Hong Kong-based Quest Research, have stepped in to make the recruitment procedure for companies more stringent with compulsory pre-employment screening, background checks, including criminal record checks and credential validation and verification.
British Police reject over 400 job applicants in last three years
13 November 2007
A total of 436 people who applied to work for the Merseyside Police in the period April 2004 to March 2007 were rejected as unsuitable candidates during the pre-employment vetting stage of their applications. Of those rejected, 150 had applied to become Police Officers or Special Constables.
The vast majority of those rejected were turned away because of suspected criminal links, or questionable financial history.
UK: Employee fraud harming small firms
June 2007 Professional Contractors Group
It estimated that almost 25 per cent of small UK-based firms have suffered some form of staff fraud due to a lack of security measures.
USA: 10 things a corporate should do to protect itself and its employees from identity theft
March 2007 Security Park
Canada: 'Didn't you check?': A bad hire can be catastrophic to a businesses' reputation
31 January 2007
If it turns out the person is a rogue and his or her nefarious conduct results in media scrutiny, the first thing reporters ask a company is, 'Didn't you check?
USA: More firms doing checks on applicants
5 January 2007 Baltimore Examiner
More and more companies are conducting often-extensive background checks to verify job applicants’ information - and experts say it’s worth the effort.
Check your references!
7 November 2006
Written or verbal references are virtually useless as a tool for would-be employers, unless heavily contextualized, says executive headhunter Debbie Goodman.
UK: Background checking for contractors
March 2006 The British Computer Society
In today's litigious environment, with increasing pressure from regulators and legislation, employers, clients and agencies are taking more care about checking the backgrounds not only of potential employees but also of freelance contractors and consultants.
UK: Vetting legislation
March 2006 BBC
Tighter vetting controls on people who want to work in schools announced.