Employers urged to credit check prospective staff

Employers urged to credit check prospective staff

Media Release 7 June 2012

Employers are encouraged to credit check prospective staff in the wake of a care worker convicted of ripping off a 99-year-old woman for tens of thousands of dollars.

The case of Aucklander, Ranita Devi, highlights the need to for employers to comprehensively check people before they are employed. Ms Devi pleaded guilty to 16 counts of obtaining money using a bankcard belonging to Emilia Antunovich living in a privately run Ellerslie retirement home.

Ms Devi who was a care worker and has since lost her job told the Auckland District Court she had many problems and was really depressed.

Veda Managing Director John Roberts says employers are permitted under the Credit Reporting Privacy Code to credit check people they want to employ where the position involves significant risk. The high degree of trust which those in care must place in their caregivers, and the correspondingly high standards which employers should expect of caregivers illustrates a particular kind of significant financial risk. The frail and the elderly deserve protection.

“In our experience a credit check will show all the warning signs of a person under financial stress and with problems mounting. These are the signs that should give a perspective employer cause to reconsider, “ Mr Roberts says.

“They owe it to their business and they owe it to their clients – who in the case of the aged care industry are particularly vulnerable.”

Increasingly New Zealand employers undertake comprehensive checks on people they want to employ.

“This is standard practice overseas and should be standard practice here.”
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