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Reference Checks and Rogue Candidates

Reference Checks - Lessons Learned

In this day and age, with LinkedIn, Facebook, Company-check.co.uk (very useful resource) and all the other online tools available, one would imagine that it is very difficult indeed for anyone to attempt to submit a CV and not be fully checkable. Unfortunately there are still those out there who try and a recent experience of a candidate registering for locum work has meant a tightening of our procedures as to who gets to register and be introduced for work.

A candidate registered with us and started to express an interest in locum and consultancy posts. We were a little bemused by the CV because it had numerous sections on that were more than just a little ambiguous in terms of the work undertaken in the recent past.

A check online did not reveal very much at all, but we received a tip off from a firm to say that the candidate's name had been changed slightly and in fact he had received a rather lengthy prison sentence for a multi-million pound VAT fraud, which might well explain why the CV was a little vague!

On discovering this we removed the candidate from our records but discovered him applying for roles on some of our satellite sites. He had not described himself as a solicitor but had become a 'legal consultant' since his incarceration.

Lesson learned! We have tightened up our procedures to try and ensure that candidates like this are unable to access our clients and vacancies.

Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment - Online Legal Recruitment for Solicitors, Legal Executives, Fee Earners, Support Staff, Managers and Paralegals. Visit our Website to search or download our Vacancy Database or view our Candidate Database online.

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