As employment screening experts, we consistently recommend implementing background screening checks into your recruitment process. This ensures that you have all criminal background information about a candidate before they are recruited into your business. In short, the benefits are endless and often essential to a business. Unfortunately, some businesses still do not conduct employee background screening checks until after a candidate is hired or, possibly, they never get around to doing it. Despite this, a case highlighted in Farnborough, Hampshire, this summer show us why this should never happen, and acts as a warning to all.

In Farnborough, delivery service, Yodel, allowed an employee to work for six months without carrying out a background check. Unfortunately for the delivery business, employee Nicholas Laloo was allowed to deliver to some of the UK’s leading retailers during his time at the company despite holding a previous conviction for rape at the time. Unbeknownst to Yodel, before his employment with them Laloo was was convicted in January 2012 for admitting to concealing his previous criminal history after previously serving a 12-year sentence for two rapes.

Laloo was later dismissed when his convictions came to light as a result of a security check in April but, according to another Yodel employee, a background check was only run after a client requested a background check on the staff, meaning that Laloo’s record could have gone unnoticed for even longer.

Performing a background check on employees after they have already been recruited unfortunately appears to be regular practice for this business. Yodel claim this was an isolated incident during the busy Christmas period, but they were extremely lucky that more damage was not caused by this hire. For an employer, recruiting someone with a history of a violent or sexual convictions is a potential nightmare for security reasons alone. Those who don’t perform a background check on employees only have themselves to blame if a convicted criminal manages to slip through unnoticed. Not only are they putting the reputation of their business on the line, they are also risking the safety of customers and other employees unnecessarily –  it is essentially a reckless move for any business owner or recruitment manager.

CBS recommends implementing a full background check on any potential employees before they are officially recruited into your business, therefore, no matter how busy your company is at that time. Doing so will give you more information about their potential criminal history, previous job experience and is more likely to leave you with a suitable candidate to fill your job opening, meaning overall you save time and money in the recruitment process.

If you would like more information about our background screening services or would like advice from our team, you can email us on: info@cbscreening.co.uk or call us on: 01443 799 900