Fake childminder report

[Goingbananass]

First time posting and looking for advice please - we signed up to a childminder who had sent us all the relevant docs including DBS checks and Ofsted reports and we paid a month's fees upfront. It however turned out that she was only registered as a nanny not a childminder and had sent us a fake childminder Ofsted report - luckily we discovered this just before our baby was to start with her. We reported her to Ofsted who did an unannounced visit last week and confirmed she's not registered as a childminder. We are now putting our baby into a nursery instead. We messaged the childminder requesting a full refund 3 days ago, but she has not replied or sent the money. Has anyone faced anything like this before? What options are available to us? We think this is fraud as she claimed to be registered and sent us a fake report, so we're thinking of doing a bank chargeback, reporting her to HMRC and Action Fraud. I'm also going to call citizens advice tomorrow. Is there anything else we should be doing? TIA

I assume she lives near by, could you go round and ask how she will be refunding you?

Does she have any social media you could review her on?

Out of interest how did she get a fake report into the ofsted website?

Def fraud

Ask for payment. If not then contact bank or fill out a ccj form and send to her and say if payment isn't made you will be sending this to court

This will damage her credit history for life

Tho if she is a nanny why isn't she nannying instead of a cm

Maybe they were in the process of applying, but creating a fake report is surely deception.

Small claims court process to get money back, once you have tried sending them several requests to resolve the situation amicably.

Brilliant thank you everyone. We'll try asking a few more times but will go down the small claims court route if all else fails.

So when I checked the Ofsted website it said "home childcarer" and that no name or report had to be shown. I didn't realise at the time this means nanny not childminder and when I asked her about it she just said it was that the system hadn't updated since she had moved. I asked for her ofsted report and she sent me one, so I thought all was ok and we paid. It was only when my dad raised some concerns just before our baby was meant to be starting that we rang Ofsted and they confirmed she wasn't registered as a childminder, but only as a nanny, and they then did the investigation and unannounced visit. No idea whether she fabricated the report or if she's taken someone elses. Just feels like a bit of a nightmare

The fabricated report is the issue and a big one too. Why would she do that?!

I'd write to her again for the last time about your full payment stating your reasons and tell her you'd be taking it further if you don't get your money back.

She'd hopefully just refund you to avoid trouble but if she doesn't, I'd be prepared to take it further to get tour money back and hopefully she gets looked into.

It's surely a massive safeguarding redflag to fake the paperwork to be granted sole charge of a baby.

I'd do the following:-

• small claims for your fee back
• follow up with Ofsted to make sure they deregister her (for good!)
• contact the DBS service to explain and see if they can advise
• speak to safeguarding team at your local constabulary
• join a Facebook page for local childminders and keep an eye on anyone recommending her / her commenting on any posts looking for childminders

Wonder why she lied

She sounds like a nanny who is ofsted reg

It could be a report when she was inspected as a nanny. After my nanny inspection i got a letter from ofsted confiing that i was compliant with ofsted register. Maybe she showed you this letter?

If you paid by credit card contact the company and dispute the payment. You should be able to get reimbursed with their help.

Thanks everyone. No, definitely not her nanny report as it says it's a childminder report on the document she sent us

Wow I'm shocked. Never heard of anyone doing that before. Terrible and thank god you found out before. Definitely don't let her get away with it. Send a letter before action and give her 14 days notice to pay you back. Then do the online money claims service and follow it through. She must have sent someone else's report to you. Glad Ofsted are involved too.

Do all of this. Also report to the local council