October

The Mail online reports how a finance director who lied about qualifications to get job at recruitment agency Reed then swindled £300,000 to spend on shoes, holidays and a hot tub is jailed for four years

• Mother lied her way into job as financial director with fake documents

• She joked about her love of shopping and had items delivered to office

• But when she ran out of money, she started siphoning funds from accounts

• Office worker became suspicious and company reported her to police

• But 45-year-old 'lied and lied' in bid to get off fraud and deception charges

• Judge hit out at her lack of remorse today as she jailed her for four years
  ​

Karen Carberry, of Epsom, Surrey, plundered the company accounts to spend in high street stores and gifts for her disabled 14-year-old daughter Charlotte.

The 45-year-old got away with the fraud for more than three years before one of her junior staff became suspicious at errors in the accounts.

Professional HR managers are unlikely to make an adverse assumption about a job candidate's immigration status on the basis of a name, accent or appearance.

By the same token, these employers will know how to stay compliant with both immigration and discrimination law, and are not likely to be affected by the doubling of the maximum civil penalty for employing a worker illegally (the penalty rises from £10,000 to £20,000 on 1 May 2014).

However, organisations may derive some benefit from a revised version of the statutory code of practice for employers on 'Avoiding unlawful discrimination while preventing illegal working', which has been released in draft form to coincide with the increased penalties. There is little new in the code but its central point is a solid one. It advises employers not to make assumptions about immigration status and to ask all job candidates to prove their right to work in the UK by producing specified documents before starting work. It also says that job applicants can be asked to provide documents at any stage before they start work.