Virgin Salespeople with Criminal Records

[Saaf_laandon_mo]

Originally Posted by Russ B

My offer is still open...

Are you auditioning for the Godfather?

[Russ]

Tut...got to bring God in to it haven't you

Anyway, if Virgin Salesman (or anyone) wants to take this up with Virgin using me as a middleman then my offer still stands.....

[LemonyBrainAid]

Sorry for the previous post, it was late and I'd had a bad day at work, I guess we've all been there.

Originally Posted by Frank

That is a stupid argument and does not resolve the issue. We are discussing VM here.

Fair enough, agreed.

Sorry, you contradicted yourself here. How can you be sure they are thorough and doubt they are not thorough at the same time? You are sure based on what exactly?

I didn't doubt that they were thorough at all. I doubted that VM would be so careless as to not be thorough when checking all possible applicants.

Originally Posted by Virgin Salesman

I think you should stick to riding your bike with "L" plates and your provisonal licence.

I enjoy riding it yeah - 9x9" L plates on the front and back of all 50cc motorcycles when only having undertaken Compulsory Bike Test, and I wouldn't want to get a criminal record now would I?
And yeah, my provisional! The only license I can have at 16

With regard to VM current checks you cant be aware of their current policy - unless you work there, which I doubt because as your profile says you are "mostly in bed"

I don't work there no, as you could tell if you read my profile properly - it has my occupation there

However, I know that most application processes now include criminal record questions which must be responded to truthfully and completely. How you can think that such a large company such as Virgin Media could not ask said question in an interview or in the process is absurd. I'm sure somewhere in your contract it asks for you to update your boss / manager / team leader / HR with any issues with police?

Anyway, I wont post any more in this thread. IS there not an anonymous phone number you can call internally? I know we have one for reporting any thing fishy / suspicious we see such as internal theft.

[Frank]

Originally Posted by LemonyBrainAid

IS there not an anonymous phone number you can call internally? I know we have one for reporting any thing fishy / suspicious we see such as internal theft.

Yes there is actually, the infamous EAP or Employee Assistance Program. Lots of large companies have them, and they are run by third-party companies so as to be impartial. Never used one myself so not sure how useful it would be in this case.

[lauzjp]

I have been credit checked and crb checked for interviews for jobs in the past (tho not with vm) - and I would certainly expect vm to vet their staff in this manner. I find that a bit disturbing that they don't.

[xpod]

Dont quite know how to put this but I am aware of people who are working within direct sales at Virgin Media (who visit customers in their own homes and have access to bank details etc) who have Criminal Records for fraud, theft and violence.

While it is a few years on i remember when NTL first laid the cabling back in the North of Edinburgh,many of the people hired,trained & sent into houses(mine included) were the local thieves & junkies.I think i mentioned it on here once before but i still remember warning the buggers who came to do my mothers house at the time.

Anyway,i think you`ll probably find that most professions have ciminals working within them so i`m not sure why your so surprised.
I`m also a wee bit curious how to came to know this information,unless i missed it amidst the bitching.If the people in question have discussed their past with you though then mabey the best advise is to just leave well alone.
We`ve all made mistakes after all

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by rogermevans

Its not for people who meet children its for those who are going to be left in charge of them

Actually, from what I have been told at work, that is not true.. It's for people who deal with any vulnerable people (children are counted as vulnerable people) in any capacity as part of their job. Under certain circumstances, people also may be required to undergo a check as part of something they are volunteering for.

[rogerdraig]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Actually, from what I have been told at work, that is not true.. It's for people who deal with any vulnerable people (children are counted as vulnerable people) in any capacity as part of their job. Under certain circumstances, people also may be required to undergo a check as part of something they are volunteering for.

no not if they are not being left in charge of them on thier own though some companies seem to stretch this to get these done when they shouldnt be

see

http://www.crb.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=308

http://www.crb.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=310

for a brief over view of what it is suposed to be used for and by any definition a sales person or even engineer wouldnt come under those definitions unless they are expected to look after kids as part of their visit while the parents or carers of a vulnerable person pops to the shops

just to emphasise this a volunteer at a school need not have one of these done if they are not going to be there for more than 6 months ( that's a fair bit of albeit supervised access to children ) against any of these jobs where they may meet children with their parents

any one at your work who thinks that these should be done and or insist people have them done isn't doing their job properly i suggest they re read their CRB pack properly or go on a refresher course

i suspect though they haven't done either and are just usoing an umbrella organisation to get these done who are pushing them to get as many done as possible regardless to the need to get thier sales up

here is a link to a fairly responsible ( i mean good by that in that it doesnt push to get every one done lol ) http://www.crbscreening.co.uk/aboutcrb.htm

but some other seem to activly push to gey work where they shouldnt

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Virgin Salesman

The question is.........should these salespeople be checked?

I personally think the answer is yes.

And if someone has been checked and passed, but still has convictions?

This forum has allowed me to air my views but if a company is not willing to look after its customers interests do i really want to work there anyway. I will go and work in utilities (gas and electric) at least there i will be able to hold my head up high and say to customers "I have been background checked" to give them confidence in who I really am!

All those utilities you mention have outsourced some of their operations overseas. Do you really think that they have obtained CRB checks on all the people working in the outsourcing companies? Do you think they are even able to?

[Amon]

Wasn't there a case in the UK a long while back where an energy company didn't do checks like these and hired a child sex offender who when he went to read a meter molested a 4-5 year old girl?

I seem to remember it on the news. I've tried ages to find it but can't. Don't know how to search for it properly as it is old news.

You would think then that any company that sends people to homes with children should check their wrkers first.

[rogerdraig]

Originally Posted by Amon

Wasn't there a case in the UK a long while back where an energy company didn't do checks like these and hired a child sex offender who when he went to read a meter molested a 4-5 year old girl?

I seem to remember it on the news. I've tried ages to find it but can't. Don't know how to search for it properly as it is old news.

You would think then that any company that sends people to homes with children should check their wrkers first.

what the 5 year old was on her own ? or did the mother leave him to look after her kids while she popped to the shops ?

( done a search myself cant find anything on this would love a link )

i suggest you read these 2 links


http://www.crb.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=308

http://www.crb.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=310

on what checks are used for

lol next we will be calling for all those living by schools to be CRBed as they see children nearly every day

---------- Post added at 12:36 ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 ----------

Originally Posted by Stuart C

And if someone has been checked and passed, but still has convictions?

ah one i didn't think of

even if they did CRB ( which you may guess i disagree with them doing lol ) then thats a good point because the CRB assessor or those they advise on giving the job may well have decided that any convictions spent or otherwise were not bad enough to deny them a job

plus in those circumstance they would not be able to tell other staff or any body in the company who did not need to know ( there is some very hefty penalties for revealing this privilaged information that those of us who get these CRBs to read would get for revealing this information )

[Amon]

Hi deffinately remeber this. The story was that he was a meter reader. On his daily round he went to a home where a Mum and her 4-6 year old daughter was in her bedroom. The Mum told the guy the meter was in the girls bedroom. When he went to read the meter the mother popped out the room for a sec. That's when he struck.

After the guy left the little girl went up to her mum and said to her "Why did the man touch me". She then called the police and the story broke out.

I remember reports calling him an apportunistic offender and that he had previous for such offenses. He was given a 2 year jail term.

As here, the issue was raised about what checks companies do when they hire staff who have previous sex crime convictions.

Now when I home in on finding the article it seems that results are removed from google by ChillingEffects.org. This only happens when I specifically search for the crime using British Gas in the search critera.

I don't get at all. I know I saw the news cover it. Sky news and the papers. It's even caused me to go searching news archives and I have since 20 minutes ago signed up to http://www.ukpressonline.co.uk/ukpre...open/index.jsp. I picked their 10 day account.

I'm searching at the moment but when I get results matching the year and the critera the page doesn't show.

I've called a few people also to ask if they remember it and they remeber it also.

I'm going to keep looking though.

---------- Post added at 19:07 ---------- Previous post was at 17:45 ----------

I found it. http://archive.echo-news.co.uk/2004/8/20/126625.html

[rogerdraig]

apart from the fact a CRB wouldn have helped there as he wasnt on the register till after that court case

the main problem there was some one silly enough to leave a child with some one they dont know on their own CRBs wont help these people as there are more child sex ofenders not recorded than there are out there

[caph]

Personally if someone had a recent conviction for unprovoked GBH I wouldn't be happy having them in my home. A conviction for assault in relation to self-defense I would have no problem with, nor speeding offences, or parking offences etc. I'm sure everyone would draw their own line as to what they would be happy with. I guess what the OP was stating was the Virgin should be drawing a line somewhere but they are not. I can in no way understand why anyone would have a problem with this. It just seems like common sense to me. Arguing about where the line should be, fair enough, but arguing that there should be no line seems crazy to me.

[rogerdraig]

Originally Posted by caph

Personally if someone had a recent conviction for unprovoked GBH I wouldn't be happy having them in my home. A conviction for assault in relation to self-defense I would have no problem with, nor speeding offences, or parking offences etc. I'm sure everyone would draw their own line as to what they would be happy with. I guess what the OP was stating was the Virgin should be drawing a line somewhere but they are not. I can in no way understand why anyone would have a problem with this. It just seems like common sense to me. Arguing about where the line should be, fair enough, but arguing that there should be no line seems crazy to me.

the line has been draw have a look at above CRB links or here

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/Resou...on/whencrb.htm

these checks were never meant to make you safe at home
see links below on how to do that


http://www.essex.police.uk/advice/v_you_02.php

http://www.sandiego.gov/police/preve...tyathome.shtml

the check are there to help schools and those dealing with vulnerable adults on a daily basis to better deliver a safe service but even with these checks we still need to monitor staff ourselves