Employee Screening, Employee Vetting Services from Eurocom C.I.

Newsletter 2 Article 1

NHS bosses call for more robust pre-employment checks

Last month we reported trends from the US and posed the question, could it happen here? Read on to see how your health may be affected

We all accept that during a recession employers are at greater risk from fraud as Job seekers, trying to maintain their life style or pay off debts, overstate their qualifications on job applications. Thankfully, most of us do not have to question whether an employee is dangerously unfit for the Job. Sadly this is not the case with the NHS trust. If they get it wrong lives are at stake.

We all expect HR to play their part in ensuring that the right people are recruited but this was not the case in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear mental health trust. Attah Okoji held the post of HR Manager until he was exposed. He was charged with fraud and subsequently convicted, on the 8th January, at Newcastle Crown Court for Fraud - Lying about criminal convictions on his job application. He was jailed for 12 weeks.

Okoji only came to light following the circulation of a national fraud alert, issued by the NHS Counter Fraud Service, highlighting Okoji's previous criminal activity in the NHS. The court heard how that, apart from failing to declare his previous convictions, in 2001 he was convicted after he used his employment as an NHS Finance officer to divert £16,000 into his own bank. Then in 2004 he was convicted of gaining a pecuniary advantage by failing to declare his previous conviction.

This is not one case in isolation; on 6th January 2009 Lee Joseph Whitehead, a former director of planning and service modernisation at NHS Stoke on Trent, was jailed for 12 weeks for adding a psychology qualification to his CV, he listed his degree qualifications as a BSc Hons Psychology an MSc Clinical Psychology and claimed that he held a Doctorate in Psychology. Commenting on this case, a CFS spokesman said "that some people think it is OK to bend the truth or fabricate qualifications. It is not. It is particularly unacceptable when those qualifications are of a clinical nature. Whitehead only obtained a BSc.

After these cases NHS, CFS Managing Director, Dermid McCausland urged all health bodies to carry out robust pre-employment checks regardless of the previous roles people claim to have had.

Eurocom C.I. was launched in 2006 to provide pre-employment screening services following the increase in employee fraud being investigated by our parent company Carratu International Plc. We are now working with NHS Trusts to developing a range of specialist screening packages to cover the appointment of everyone from Consultants to cleaners. To discuss your specific screening requirements call us on 0845 880 5888.