Court Judgement Figures Show Modest Decrease in first 6 months of 2011

Figures released by the Registry Trust show modest decreases in the numbers and value of Court Judgements registered in the first six months (H1) of 2011.

In England and Wales there were 270,919 judgements registered between January and June 2011, compared to 276,888 for the same period in 2010, with the average value of judgements also falling slightly from £3765 to £3244.

The picture in Scotland followed a similar pattern, with the number of Court Decrees, (the Scottish equivalent to County Court Judgements in England and Wales) decreasing from 14,213 in H1 2010 to 13,223 in H1 2011. However, the average value rose from £3457 in H1 2010 to £3766 in H1 2011.

Northern Ireland also saw a decrease from 5654 judgements in H1 2010 to 4713 in H1 2011.

One reason for the decrease in judgement numbers could be that lenders, under pressure from the government, are increasing their forbearance efforts working with their customers in difficulty much more than previously to find a solution other than requesting a judgement. However, excessive use of forbearance strategies could actually just be delaying court action which would lead to rising numbers of judgements going forward.

An employee’s financial situation can contribute towards the temptation to commit fraud in the work place; therefore it makes sense for employers to include financial checks as standard within their employment screening process.  Know Your Candidate’s range of Employee Credit Checks enables employers to see if applicants or employees have public financial data such as County Court Judgements on their credit file. Linked addresses are searched automatically, even if undisclosed by the applicant, to ensure that all judgements registered against an individual are found.

The Electoral Register – not an Effective Identity Check

While taking a look at the websites of other employment screening firms it was interesting to see that some marketed a check against the Electoral Register as their Identity Check. Unfortunately for their customers a check against the Electoral Register is not an effective Identity Check – there a 2 key reasons for this:

1. Only the Edited Electoral Register can be used for the purpose of Employment Screening. Individuals have the right to opt-out of the edited register and many do so. Research by Leeds based credit reference agency Callcredit in January 2011 found that the overall average opt-out rate across the UK is 45%. Many local authority areas see significantly higher opt-out rates – South Gloucestershire (81.95%), Bromley (77.51%) and Epping Forest (76.49%)
2. No ID checks are made when compiling the Electoral Register. The primary purpose of the register is to compile an accurate register of voters and as such the checks and balances in place when the data is collected are to prevent electoral rather than identity fraud. No one from the local authority visits each property asking to see copies of passports for everyone in the household

Know Your Candidate provides its customers with electronic identity and address verification. The electronic approach has been around for over 10 years and is used by many industry sectors including financial services and the public sector to verify an individual’s identity. The electronic approach compares the data provided by the applicant against a whole range of data sources, public and private, held by credit references agencies to find evidence that the applicant’s identity exists and they live at the address they claim. This approach considers the number of data items (breadth), the due diligence in place when the database record was created (quality) and the length of time the data items cover (depth). Clearly, the greater number of data items with high degree of due diligence when they were created (e.g. credit accounts) then the greater amount of confidence the employer can have that their applicant is who they claim to be. Checks are also made against alias names and mortality databases. To find out more about Know Your Candidate’s Identity and Address Check click here.

Staff Fraud up 40% since 2008

CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service has released statistics regarding staff fraud recorded by members of the CIFAS Staff Fraud Database in 2010. The Staff Fraud Database, launched in 2006, enables 205 member organisations to submit and share details of confirmed cases of staff fraud. Members are drawn from financial services, insurance, telecommunications and recruitment sectors. The key findings of the 2010 Staff Fraudscape report include:

• A 3% decrease compared to 2009, but staff fraud up 40% since 2008
• Cases of obtaining / disclosure of personal data up by 63% on 2009
• 70% increase in unsuccessful employment application frauds on 2009

CIFAS also reported:

• 62% of staff fraudsters are male, 38% female
• The 21-30 age group committed most staff frauds, accounting for 58% of the total
• Disclosure of personal data accounted for 29% of all frauds committed by those under 21, the highest proportion of any age group, whereas very few people over 40 committed this type of fraud.

Barry Hetherington, MD of employment screening firm Know Your Candidate commented “clearly the figures released by CIFAS should be of concern to all employers, especially those holding personal data on consumers.  The reported increases could be due to one or a combination of factors: are they a consequence of the tough economic climate and rising cost of living? Are fraudsters stepping up their efforts to target employees of firms holding personal data? Are internal controls not strong enough? Are the rises down to more organisations simply reporting fraud to the database?”

“Employment screening is one of several tools, which used in combination, enable employers to help prevent employee fraud. Organisations which also implement robust internal controls, monitoring, on-going screening and effective procedures for reporting fraud will be in the best position to prevent employee fraud. The rise in unsuccessful employment application frauds is likely to be down to robust screening from the members of CIFAS staff fraud database rather than a large increase in fraudulent applicants. Employers with only minimal employment screening procedures in place beware – one of those 85 unsuccessful applicants behind employment application frauds may be heading your way!”

To download a full copy of the 2010 CIFAS Staff Fraudscape report click here. To learn more about the employment screening service offered by Know Your Candidate click here.