New employee is a fake, where to go from here?

[londonnotlangdon]

It's a large organisation and I just had to send off her paperwork, passport, things like that

She was given the job after her second interview last week.

However, she has emailed me these documents (fine), and her birth certificate says born in September 2002?

That makes her 19?

This is a problem because, for example, her CV says she was an Executive Assistant to a Director in 2018? When she would've been in school?!

I've asked HR, who haven't replied properly, I've asked them to call. But someone replied to my email of concern with 'so you don't want this new me ever of staff? Why not?'

What can actually be done about this?

What a relief. Sensible girl - thank you for the update. Good thread to read as it had certainly taken my mind off my own problems x

Children born in 2002 had to stay at school until 18

@Nogreenfingers83 - no, a discrepancy was found in the email given. It's still not sufficient evidence to immediately accuse someone of fraud. And the OP is not the one to take this further, she is in the wrong position and doesn't have the right experience or knowledge.

I'm not a fan of HR departments, they're usually the cause of much frustration. But in this case they are the right people to be pursuing this, and if I was them I wouldn't be telling the OP much about what we were doing or what the outcome was.

Yep. Mine too.

@yellowsuninthesky Woolworths is a huge company in Australia. But they are a supermarket chain here, not the variety store type (though we did have one like that in the centre of Sydney, not sure if there were others).

They have about a third of the total market share, so plenty around.

Me too! But as I took them in 1980, I don't think I'd bother putting them on a CV....

If she was interviewed it would not be difficult for a 19 yr old to appear 25 and had faked all her CV, fake emails not confirmed further, until she had to provide a real birth certificate she got away with it. Not putting your age on CV has no influence they can see by your employment record ( if it’s genuine) how long you’ve been working and any gaps and your age will be seen on interview.

You really do not want a staff member like this, not only will she be incompetent she will cause endless problems for the other staff, one bad apple will ruin the whole office.

Some of the comments on this thread are bonkers
Defending what is fraud. People that would rather take her on than be accused of some sort of discrimination
Other people using ridiculous examples which are absolutely nothing like what has gone on here
People saying even if she's lied she might still be good or just take her on then get rid of her. I'm not sure whether people are just totally naive or are on the wind up.
The worst of all is the people saying well it could all be true. She could have had an important job for a major company aged 13, part time maybe?
I'm honestly shocked and your HR department are rubbish
I started my current job in 2014 at the age of 34. I had to provide ten years references, proof of ID, I was credit checked and even had to supply my GCSE, A Level and degree certificates
That was despite having worked for the company previously from 2000 to 2007.

I hope HR will report this to the authorities, there could be a lot more behind this.

Is she hiding from an abusive ex?

This is the most bonkers take on GDPR that I have ever seen on MN - and that's saying something 🤯

@DogsAndGin , respectfully, that is utter bollocks.

The GDPR is notoriously complex; I’d advise you not to make erroneous comments about matters in which you are clearly very far from expert.

No. She’s a school leaver who is trying to get a job by fraudulently misrepresenting her work history.

@milkyaqua

"All of this before reaching the grand old age of 19?!"

But the OP says she seems much older than 19- even 25 at one point up thread.

She could certainly have had a MH episode or bullying by a boss by 25 - I'm not saying all three at once, it was just to give some examples of where gaps appear in CVs and naive people will attempt to cover up - or desperation if you've applied for a string of jobs and not got to interview. So I still think it is possible

If true it's still tricky as she's been offered the job on false details, but a sympathetic employer may decide to keep her on in these circs (but not if she'd done 6 months inside for money laundering or GBH) was my point...

The problem is that it’s not embellishing really-it’s lying and unprofessional and means you are not trustworthy.

@yellowsuninthesky Woolworths is still going in Germany (so is c&a too!) but it's quite different to the Uk one and no pick & mix sadly.

@Piglet89 I agree that @DogsAndGin has the wrong take, but there's a question over why the OP is seeing the passport. PII has to be handled carefully to comply with GDPR and she claims this is a large organisation with an HR department. It would be unusual for RTW and identity checks to be done by a line manager or for an applicant to be expected to send these to a line manager to be forwarded on. There's no valid reason I can think of why she should have seen these documents. And that's without the unnecessary birth certificate when a passport was available (but it does embellish the story nicely).

She has recognised that you are on to her. Maybe she looked at her appplication and saw the errors she had made.

I agree with PP though. Some of these suggestions are bonkers! Taking her on, not using her passport to check her age etc.

Having said that your HR dept sounds useless.

The OP stated she seemed much older than 19. But she has provided both her passport and birth certificate which both state she is 19
So she is 19.Fact

I am a line manager, and I interview people for roles in my team. I meet the people I am interviewing in reception a few minutes before their interview. I ask for their RtW documents, look at them, photocopy them, and then put the copies in a envelope for HR. So I do see and scrutinise the originals of people’s ID. HR don’t even work in the same building, so they wouldn’t be present to do this at the time of interview.

I am sure this is commonplace in many places of work. I work in the public sector and we are very much bound by process and legislation. I don’t know why you think that line managers wouldn’t see this material.

Hang on a minute the junior HR person mentioned age discrimination but that they needed to check with senior HR. Senior HR then resolved it. This is what I would expect a junior HR person to do, be aware of the potential and escalate for advice.

As per my pp it is very likely the Senior HR person contacted the applicant and it became clear the CV was not accurate.

in all professions you get good and poor practitioners. HR can advise but are frequently overruled by Senior managers or they get called in too late and then have to find creative solutions to solve the issue. HR can’t tell what actually happened and so are seen as unhelpful (not legal) or wrong (over ruled).

I was reading this with increasing intrigue until I saw the latest update. Clearly there was something dodgy going on and she realised she'd been busted.

As a recruiter although i agree it was very tricky ground to manage I was going to suggest asking for GCSE certificates and having seen the dates on those asking how she was working FT at the same time.

@londonnotlangdon she’s withdrawn because she’s worked out you’re onto her.

Untrustworthy. Bullet dodged.

Why does the 40k salary make any difference? Unless you’re suggesting she’s too young to earn that much.. I’m sure that has a name🫠

It’s not at all age discrimination to ask how she managed to do such a responsible job when she was supposed to be at school! She’s clearly lying on her cv or at least it appears that way so I would be asking questions.