To sack my cleaner for this?

[LondonUnited]

I have a cleaner once a week. She comes with her sister and they blitz the house together (I have four children including a toddler and a baby who never sleeps so always plenty to do!) She has been coming for about 6 weeks now, and it’s a private arrangement not an agency one.

I came back today and pulled up on the drive. She then pulled up about 30 seconds later, followed by a police car with its sirens on. The police then proceeded to bust her for driving without insurance (or so it appeared).

About 15 minutes later she let herself in, found me and explained it was all a mistake, that she had comprehensive insurance on her other car so could drive this one, etc.

However. I feel really uneasy about this. Clearly the car she was driving was uninsured as it pinged on the police ANPR. WIBU to make my excuses and find another cleaner?

I think the point the OP is making is that this incident has made her think that this woman may not be honest and/or trustworthy. Giving a stranger a key to our home is a big deal. I don't think I would sack her (a big assumption is being made over her honesty, or lack of) but I would definitely have my spidey sense on in future.

Yes exactly that MirandaGoshawk. But anyway it looks like I am in the tiny minority so I will try not to worry about it!

Don’t sack her.

Another one here that has been pulled over and it was the police thingies mistake. I also don't understand why you would sack her if she's good otherwise. Good cleaners are hard to find so I think you'd be cutting off your nose to spite your face somewhat!

Are you worried about her being dishonest in general so you're worried about stealing? Whenever I'd had cleaners I ask that they at the start bring ID with them which I photograph. I'd not sack her, but if you're feeling uneasy then just keep an eye on things for a while. The police do make mistakes (I wish they'd spend more time doing actual policing, too).

The key thing here is was the car clamped and/or impounded? If it wasn’t and she has been allowed to continue driving it then the police discovered that she IS driving legally so there is no issue.

think the point the OP is making is that this incident has made her think that this woman may not be honest and/or trustworthy

Nah, I think then point she was making is that she’s embarrassed the police were at her house and ‘what will the neighbours think?’ That and she lives in a ‘naice’ Area & has a cleaner.

@LondonUnited. do you pay her NI & PAYE and Employers Ni etc?

Ah I see, you actually want to sack her because of what your neighbours might think.

She was under no obligation to tell you anything about it .
Absolutely none of your business .
Are you actually her employer ?
She isn't working for an agency or self employed ?

How long had the police been chasing her before she reached your driveway?

Oh I see it's a 'private arrangement' , you're her client then .
You're not sacking her ffs you just aren't booking the service again.

I wish they'd spend more time doing actual policing, too

I think you'll find stopping a potentially uninsured driver IS 'actual policing'

YABU if you're happy with her cleaning.

What the actual fuck, OP. How would you feel about getting sacked from your job over a car insurance mix up?

She's your cleaner, not your fucking serf.

I wouldn't take this as an indication of character. If your cleaner has all the insurances she needs to clean domestically then I would take that as a positive and if not then a negative. Purely as that would genuinely affect you.

I don't see how this affects her ability to clean your house, unless you think she'll have transportation problems because of this or that it reflects poorly on her character, overall. If I'd been happy with her work, I'd wait and see what happened before making a decision. It could be an honest mistake, and it's easy enough to fire her later on, if there are more issues popping up.

Messolini9 Sorry I didnt mean to sound snobby in my post .I was just being practical is all (Never had a cleaner !)not posh at all . My DM had Carers and some things went missing ,never accused anyone but I just feel its not"policy" to leave anything of value lying about .

@LondonUnited you need to make sure she has insurance for her cleaning work. If something goes wrong your house insurance won't cover it.

What? What if this had happened an hour ago outside of your area? What’s it got to do with her cleaning?

On the other side maybe driving W/O Insurance could be true and be short of cash .Might be prudent not to leave any valuables around just in case of temptation do you think

My god. Jesus wept.

I see the playground 'don't sneak' brigade are out in full force today. We can only assume that they will just shrug if their car (or breadwinner, or child) is hit by an uninsured driver.

look up her car reg on gov.uk and see if she has tax and MoT. (those without insurance often see rules as for other people). If ok, ask politely what happened. The 'I can drive any car' story only works if the other car belongs to someone else and is insured by them. All this is because there can be mistakes.

if it doesn't stack up, sack. Do you really want someone uninsured driving near you?

uninsured drivers are scum.

have never, before today, seen a police car with sirens in my area (and we have been here for 6 years). There may have been some twitching curtains on the street wink

Is that you Hyacinth?

Seriously, if this has zero impact on her ability to clean, it's none of your business.

Very often cars will show as not insured on the police national computer when they in fact are, if she was not insured then she would defiantly have been gone longer than 15 mins, looks like she sorted it out with the police. They would also have seized the car had it not been insured.

Massive over reaction. Are you okay hun?

That seems a bit mean to be fair, why does it affect you her not having any insurance?