Recruitment agency struggles to detect fake IDs
Fraudulent identification is becoming “incredibly difficult” to spot, warned recruitment agency Barker Ross after it was served a notice of liability following the arrest of illegal workers at Buckingham Foods’s sandwich factory in Redmoor, Milton Keynes.
The comment came after Food Manufacture reported that 10 agency staff were arrested for working illegally following an immigration raid.
Since the raid on April 23, The UK Border Agency has been working with Barker Ross’s Milton Keynes team to help it detect suspicious documentation. Paul Ross, md of Barker Ross, said: “It is becoming increasingly difficult for all employers to spot fake ID, despite stringent checks.”
He said that the applicants, who were arrested at Buckingham Foods’s sandwich site in Milton Keynes last month, had given proof of their eligibility and copies of their original documents upon registration. Their documents “appeared to be genuine” and “we had no reason to doubt their validity”, added Ross.
Ross added: “We welcome the UK Border Agency’s assistance in helping us to determine how these illegal workers slipped through the net on this occasion. We also welcome the Agency’s assistance in showing us what further measures can be taken to prevent any eligibility breaches in the future.”
Since then, Barker Ross said that it had been served a notice of liability “and must wait” to see if the UK Border Agency will clear it.
