A recent story from GreenwichTime.com, proves once again the importance of background checks when hiring a nanny, babysitter, au pair, or other live-in home help.
According to the report, a nanny in Connecticut allegedly stole checks from the homes of her employers – moving from job to job and committing a crime at each stop – and even showed up at a local day care to pick up a child after having been let go by the child’s parents months before. After the day care incident, police found the woman working as a nanny for another family and arrested her. She was charged with breach of peace, first-degree larceny, eight counts of third-degree forgery, and eight counts of fraudulent use of an ATM card.
According to police, the woman came to America from Brazil on a work permit and did so well on her interviews at the homes where she worked as a live-in nanny that most families never checked her references or ran a background check, which is how she managed to steal sensitive financial information from the people for whom she worked. In one instance, police said the nanny cashed forged checks worth $16,000.
This nanny is a prime example of how residents need to protect themselves when hiring an in-house employee, particularly one in charge of watching children like a nanny, babysitter, or au pair. When people allow someone into their house, they should know that person’s background. One way to find that information out is to run a background check on that individual.
For families that rely on full-time nannies, this nanny’s story may become more common, especially with the recent slump in the economy. As a result, police said it is vitally important for people to do thorough investigations of their prospective employees in the form of extensive background checks.
The most important steps in hiring a nanny or other live-in help are the interview and background check. The prospective help should fill out a form detailing their work history so references can be fact-checked to ensure they are legitimate. Background checks should be performed by a professional, accredited background check provider to ensure maximum efficiency.
MyBackgroundCheck.com – a leader in consumer-requested and applicant-supplied background checks – offers a comprehensive Home Help Screening service to protect families from the people they hire to work in their home. In many cases, the prospective employee will pay for the background check to help speed up the hiring process. For more information on background check services for live-in home help, please visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364.
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