Datapol aims to help beat growing employee fraud

Datapol, a leading reference and screening business for employers, has recently expanded its work that aims to help stamp out growing employee fraud.

Colin Carslake, who has 21 years experience in the insurance industry, will be developing relationships with insurance companies and brokers to help them address the issue of screening employees for Fidelity insurance purposes and also to help them with their own screening process for recruitment.

Mr Carslake said: “My work with insurance companies will be two fold; firstly on screening of employees to help manage the instances of fraud internally. Secondly working with brokers and insurance companies to help their clients manage employee fraud. My experience within the industry means that I am ideally placed to advise and assist on what we see as an underdeveloped market.”

It is estimated that last year employee fraud cost UK employers hundreds of millions of pounds and yet only a third of companies feel that they are doing enough to combat the problem. One of the key reasons for the growth in this problem is inadequate screening during the recruitment process, with Datapol claiming that up to 75 per cent of companies do not complete reference checks on staff. Datapol believe that brokers and insurance companies are missing out on a huge chunk of income because they are failing to offer companies adequate advice on dealing with and insuring against employee fraud.

Datapol, launched in 1996, has three areas of business, home collection service, referencing and screening service and specialist recruitment service.

The company has enjoyed a turnover at the end of this year expected to reach £10 million, up from £1 million at the end of last year. (SP)