The Minister for Home Affairs, Juan Watterson MHK, recently raised concerns in the local media, stating that whilst CRB (Criminal Record Bureau) checks played a ‘crucial part’, he went onto add that he ‘would also encourage Isle of Man employers to ensure that they continue to have robust recruitment practices in place’.
His comments sit well with a National survey conducted by a leading company of Accountants and held in the first six months of 2012 indicating that fraud by management and employees within organisations made up two thirds of all new fraud cases and cost employers a total of ?374M. Two factors led to this enormous figure. Firstly, a very large number of cases as opposed to a few high value frauds and secondly that the main offenders were of management level and persons with access to company funds and sensitive and confidential intelligence. Such cases are no unusual in the Isle of Man Courts.
In previous years the same survey has indicated the fraudsters were from outside of the organisation but now the spotlight falls squarely on within, causing a chronic and pernicious threat to businesses in such austere times.
Rob Kinrade, a Director at Expol Limited, whose company specialises in pre-employment screening said that, “A major part of our business now revolves around pre-employment screening. With greater responsibility being placed upon employers to ensure integrity within the workplace, particularly within the Finance Industry, more and more companies are using our pre-employment screening product as part of their recruitment process.
“We have carefully developed our pre-employment screening product over the past 7 years in the private sector and from 50 years gathering and disseminating intelligence in the police service. Many island employers now utilise this as a vital tool to making informed choices.
“A pre-employment screening check is swift, inexpensive, fully Data compliant and provides peace of mind for the employer that all reasonable steps have been taken to mitigate risk and prevent fraud within the workplace”.
Rob Kinrade is a former senior police Detective and is now a Director of Expol Limited, a company of Forensic and Civil Investigators. He can be contacted on 611190 or rkinrade@expol.co.uk.
