Recruitment Agency Misses CV Fraudster

Another sobering reminder of why background screening is essential, especially when it comes to verifying the truth of someone’s CV. This is a hard lesson to learn:

A recruitment agency accidentally placed a crook into a top role where she went on to steal £115,000 – Nottinghamshire Live reports.

Alaska Freeman of Radford lied about the accountancy qualifications she claimed to have. She secured a role with Maun Industries Ltd in 2012 as assistant management accountant, and was soon promoted to general manager of a second company Maun purchased in 2013, Ketchum Manufacturing Company Ltd.

However, she used her position to make personal purchases on company credit cards, transfer funds into her own bank accounts, and steal petty cash – in total taking around £101,000. Freeman was finally exposed in 2015 when HMRC told the company’s MD Eddie Thomas they owed more than £100,000 in unpaid NI and PAYE contributions.

However, Freeman’s fraud did not stop there. After she was bailed in February 2016 and was still being investigated, she successfully applied for a job as Financial Controller at Nexor Limited in Nottingham. Once again, she was able to use company credit cards to pay for items such as jewellery, clothing, computer equipment and beauty products, this time totalling more than £3,200.