Anna Bithrey, a solicitor in the Employment Law team at Taylor Walton, discusses why lying on a CV matters.
According to a 2017 YouGov study, 10% of British people openly confess to having lied on their CV to some degree, with 40% of those individuals admitting to being less than truthful about their education and qualifications. Further surveys on the topic have suggested that the number of people embellishing the truth on their CV could in fact be substantially more than this, however, so it appears that the issue is perhaps more common than most employers might expect.
Here, we take a closer look at the legalities surrounding the matter and discuss what employers can do to mitigate the risk of employing an individual who has been dishonest on their CV.
What is the law?
Under UK employment law, if an employer finds that an employee obtained their role as a result of being dishonest on their CV, depending on the degree of the dishonesty, there are the two usual routes employers could take. The deception will likely be considered a serious breach of the contract, meaning that the employer will be entitled to terminate employment without notice on the grounds of gross misconduct.
Furthermore, if an employee has lied about having the requisite qualifications needed to perform a specific role, an employer could also seek to terminate employment on the grounds of capability. The recent Supreme Court case of R v Andrewes (2022) is a stark reminder to both employers and employees that there could be major consequences under criminal law should an employee falsify information on their CV.
In this case, Mr Andrewes gained employment as the CEO of a hospice after falsely claiming to have particular qualifications on his CV. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to obtaining a pecuniary advantage (his earnings) by deception under the Theft Act 1968. He also pleaded guilty to fraud. As a result, Mr Andrewes was sentenced to a two-year prison term. In addition, in August this year, the Supreme Court held that it was also proportionate to confiscate a percentage of Mr Andrewes’ ‘fraudulent’ earnings and upheld a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 for £96,737.24 of the £643,602.91 of Mr Andrewes’ net wages.
Potential Consequences for Employers
Fortunately, despite his deception, Mr Andrewes had been credited for his strong performance whilst acting as CEO. However, often the consequences of hiring an individual ill-equipped for a role will carry several risks from a legal, financial and reputational perspective.
For example, if an employee is underqualified to undertake specific tasks, this could result in health and safety risks and/or negligence for which the employer will be vicariously liable. An employer will be more likely to be held liable for its employee’s negligent acts if there has been a failure to carry out proper due diligence during recruitment. Hiring under-skilled employees could mean that the quality of their work will be poor or even defective. This could result in claims being bought against a business, costly litigation and/or substantial financial losses.
How can employers mitigate this risk?
There are several actions that employers can take to ensure they have undertaken appropriate due diligence and fact-checking on employment candidates before appointing them:
Background checks
Depending upon the nature of the role, and whether it is proportionate, a candidate may be subject to background checks such as DBS or credit checks. It can also be beneficial to review a candidate’s social media channels to ensure there is consistency in their experience. This could reveal whether an individual did or did not attend a particular university, for example. Some employers may wish to go one step further by instructing an investigator to look more closely at someone’s background. However, before undertaking any such actions, employers must consider whether they have a lawful basis for doing so under data protection laws.
References
Specific, relevant references from previous employers or academic institutions are usually helpful for ensuring someone’s employment history or qualifications are correct. Employers may also wish to verify the validity of the source by searching for contact details on a company’s/institution’s website too. All job offers must be made subject to receiving satisfactory references.
Evidence of qualifications
Request that candidates provide original qualification certificates, as it is more challenging to forge an original hard copy certificate than a certificate online. This may not be practical if qualifications were obtained some time ago. However, there are specialist companies who can perform background checks to obtain this information if the candidate is unable to do so themselves.
Interviewing techniques
CVs should always be fully reviewed before the interview to ensure that any gaps are highlighted and appropriate questions are prepared. Ask questions about their history. Try to obtain a detailed understanding of the important areas of their experience. If you have any doubts about their answers, you can continue to ask further questions to identify any inconsistencies or use competency-based questions to test a candidate’s ability to perform the role.
If an employee is found to have lied on their CV once they have already started employment, the employer should take appropriate steps to mitigate the risk of damage to their business. In the majority of cases, this is likely to mean disciplinary proceedings are commenced against the employee which may result in dismissal. Employers will also need to take into consideration whether it is appropriate to report the employee to the police in the circumstances.
Data protection considerations
Employers need to think about their obligations under the laws on data protection (namely the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR) before collating any personal data about a candidate. The main considerations are:
- There needs to be a lawful basis for processing the data. This will usually be that the employer has a legitimate purpose for deciding whether to appoint someone to a role or not. However, additional reasons will be required where the personal data the employer wants to collect is of a sensitive nature, such as about criminal convictions.
- Employers should provide prospective employees with a privacy notice, outlining, among other matters, the data that the company intends to collect during the recruitment process, how this data will be used, how it will be stored and processed, and what decisions will be made using this data. The privacy notice should be provided before the data collection process is carried out to ensure that the employer’s obligations have been satisfied.
Summary
The consequences of an employee lying on their CV, both for an employer and employee, are potentially far-reaching. As such, employers should ensure that their recruitment processes have an appropriate balance between taking all reasonable steps to verify the information provided by candidates on their suitability and against what their data protection obligations are.
