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The  REC has issued a warning to its members to be wary of a fraudster who has been conning agencies throughout the UK.

The alert about the scam came from the City of London Police which sent out letters to recruitment firms in the City following reports of several frauds that were said to have run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. This could be potentially much more through other frauds which may have so far gone unreported.

The City of London Police said the fraudster operates by setting up a false company and then contacting an agency asking for a temporary worker with specific skills such as languages.

Within days, the agency is sent a CV of someone with such skills, the fake CV securing its fictitious owner a job with the non-existent company. The agency then pays the wages of the temporary worker.

The same aliases have been used by the fraudster in several crimes and the Police are asking companies to check their records for the following names.      

-  Antonio Almeda, Antonio Almeida or Tony D’Almeda or similar spelling 

-  Bero Venturi or Berodo Venturi or similar spelling 

The company names ‘Myers and Myers’ and ‘hhi tekno’ have also been used.

These crimes only became apparent when the invoices sent to the false company to recover the wages are not reimbursed.

Claire Walker, the REC’s Head of Professional Standards Services, said: “Fortunately, such fraud cases against recruitment agencies are rare but we are advising members to be on their guard in this instance because of the amount of money this fraudster has so far cost recruiters, which is in the region of £300,000.

“We fully concur with the City of London Police’s advice which is urge our members to carry out rigorous ID checks on any new clients to ensure they do not become the latest victims of this crime.”

Anyone who believes they may have had dealings with the bogus company should report the incident to their local police mentioning the City of London Police’s inquiry.