Powerchex - Pre-employment screening newsletter

ISSUE 53 JANUARY 2010	www.powerchex.co.uk

Welcome to this month's Powerchex update:


	Also in this issue • A City Viewpoint • Articles of interest • FSA News • Conferences & Events

Happy New Year! 2010 has dawned and with it comes a new air of optimism in HR and recruitment. To start us off in the new year, we are absolutely delighted to have Ros Wright the Chairman of the Fraud Advisory Panel and a tireless advocate for the victims of fraud, as our author this month. We will also be catching up with Patrick who has now reached Australia while staying abreast of developments in the UK and never missing an issue of the weekend Financial Times.

Employee Fraud
By Rosalind Wright CB QC, Chairman,
Fraud Advisory Panel

Fraud has to be taken seriously. It costs the UK economy alone an estimated £13.9bn a year: £230 for every person in the UK. It facilitates other crime, such as terrorism, and there is clear evidence that it is becoming a crime of choice for professional criminals. The response from law enforcement world-wide has not been sufficient. We need to bear down on fraud; to make sure that laws, procedures and resources devoted to combating fraud are fit for the modern age so we can tackle sophisticated economic crime vigorously and effectively. But industry and business can do a great deal to protect itself from the threat of fraud.

The anticipated gains for the fraudster are enormous and the likelihood of apprehension and thus of conviction and punishment comparatively small compared with conventional crimes of dishonesty involving guns, intimidation and violence of all kinds. Fraud targeted at a business almost invariably has links within the business.

Theft or financial manipulation by staff and directors is the commonest form of fraud experienced by companies. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ latest economic crime survey reports that asset misappropriation by employees, generally the easiest fraud to detect as it involves the theft of tangible assets with a defined value, is the single most common form of economic crime affecting the great majority of those businesses which fall victim to fraud. UK companies report a higher level of asset misappropriation than elsewhere in the world...

Read this article in full

		About Rosalind Wright Rosalind Wright CB QC is the Chairman of the Fraud Advisory Panel the independent fraud watchdog founded and supported by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. She is also a non-executive director of the Insolvency Service and is a member and formerly chaired the Supervisory Committee of OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office. She is a barrister and a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple and has also been called to the Bar of Northern Ireland. She was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the New Year Honours in 2001 and awarded QC honoris causa in 2006. read full biography

A City viewpoint

Patrick Healy Alternative Strategies - A year away from the City
January

By the time this is published we hope to be in Australia but at the moment we are well into the South East Asian leg of the trip and things have taken a distinct turn for the exotic. For example, we recently visited the Cao Dai Holy See near Saigon. To get a picture of this you could try to envision the Vatican re-imagined by Walt Disney during an opium dream. The ceremonies are lavish and colourful and the vestments are gorgeous.

Caodaism seems to be a benign and decent faith but with Victor Hugo as a saint and a creed that incorporates elements from Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Taoism, it isn't too hard to be slightly overwhelmed by what seems to be an excessively diversified religious portfolio...

Read this article in full

Articles of interest

Powerchex Announces New Collaboration with the Design Council Press release, 23rd December 2009 Powerchex Warns of the Consequences of CV Embellishment Press release, 22nd December 2009 NHS HR manager who lied on CV ordered to pay £9,600 in costs Personnel Today, 21st December 2009 Job offers increase in financial services sector Recruiter, 16th December 2009 Job Offers in the UK Financial Services Sector increase marginally Press release, 15th December 2009 The Firms Most Likely To Be Impacted By UK Bonus Tax Here is the City News, 11th December 2009 Does The UK Bonus Tax Include Me? Here is the City News, 11th December 2009 Darling puts tax on bankers’ bonuses People Management, 9th December 2009 Powerchex Warns of the Risk of Insufficient Background Checking after The FSA takes Action Press release, 3rd December 2009 Data Protection - new powers of Information Commissioner push data protection up the risk register Wragge&Co, 1st December 2009 Data Protection and Freedom of Information Update Ashfords Solicitors, 16th November 2009 Government consults on proposed fines of up to £500,000 for data protection breaches TLT Solicitors, November 2009

FSA News

Insurance broker brothers banned for concealing criminal record from FSA The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned two Leytonstone insurance brokers, Faraz Ahmed Siddique and Waqas Ahmed Siddique, for lying to cover up Waqas Siddique’s criminal conviction. Margaret Cole, the FSA’s director of enforcement and financial crime, said: "Aston Sterling was only able to operate as an insurance intermediary because the Siddique brothers lied to the FSA. With invaluable assistance from the Metropolitan Police and the Prison Service, we established the full extent of the brothers’ concealment of material information that should have been disclosed to the FSA. "We have made examples of Waqas and Faraz Siddique to send a warning to firms and individuals: do not lie to the FSA. This case, and others that are due to follow, serve as a clear signal about the consequences of giving anything less than full and frank disclosure of material information to the FSA." FSA, 2nd December 2009 FSA publishes feedback statement on remuneration The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published the summarised feedback it received on whether to extend its code on remuneration policies to other FSA-authorised firms. The FSA’s remuneration code comes into force for large banks, building societies and broker dealers on 1 January 2010. It will apply to any remuneration awards made by these firms for the 2009 performance year. FSA, 8th December 2009 Director fined £75,000 and banned from the industry for lying to FSA The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined the director of a West Midlands financial adviser firm £75,000 for lying repeatedly to the regulator, and banned him from the industry. FSA, 17th December 2009

Conferences & Events

Understanding Regulation and Compliance
Securities & Investment Institute, London, 26/27 January 2010

Employee Engagement Conference
CIPD, London, 26th January 2010

Absence Management Forum 2010
Symposium Events, Canary Wharf, London, 28th January 2010

London HR Connection Event: Doing the right thing - the HR challenge
London HR Connection, London, 3rd February 2010

London HR Connection Event: The Annual Employment Law Quiz
London HR Connection, London, 12th May 2010

Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment
Events Calendar

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