Legal Dilemma: Can We Be Held Liable for an Employee's Fake Degree from 5 Years Ago?

Hi everyone, we run a job consultancy company. An employee produced a fake degree to our company, and we did not conduct a background check before deploying the employee to our client company. After deploying him, we discovered that his degree was not genuine. He did not work in our client company as he was still in his training period. Upon discovering this, he resigned from both our client company and our job consultancy. Therefore, he was trained for less than a month, and no damages occurred for us or our client. This incident took place 5 years ago.

Legal implications of a fake degree

Can we take legal action against him? Does our company bear liability for allowing him to cheat our client by using his fake degree?

Thank you.

Dear friend, the incident happened five years ago. Yes, your company should have done the background check; nevertheless, when it was discovered that the employee's degree was fake, you initiated disciplinary action and terminated his services. Therefore, corrective action was taken. Why are you feeling guilty now? Secondly, why would you like to bring up the issue after five years?

Misrepresentation of Facts

The heading of your post is a misrepresentation of facts. However, considering the incident as misrepresentation from your side would be wrong. There was misrepresentation from the candidate's side, and you have taken disciplinary action.

Upon the discovery of the fake degree certificate, you terminated the employee's services. You already punished him by terminating his services. On what grounds would you like to punish him for a second time? Please note that Indian jurisprudence does not allow two punishments for the same offense.

Mistakes can happen in the course of work. However, you did not try to cover up or justify the mistake. Therefore, it's best to ignore what happened five years ago and move on.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

Hi, @Dinesh Divekar, thank you for replying to our post. We did not terminate him; the employee left the company by paying a fee. It was a "Resignation," and he sent us a resignation letter and resigned immediately after he learned that we discovered his degree was not genuine. We did not terminate him at all. We charged him 1 LAC as per what was written in our bond agreement!

Please answer this: if we take this to court, do we get charged with a criminal offense for misrepresentation? It is our duty as a consultancy to thoroughly check the employee's background before deploying him to the client!

Thank you.

Employee Resignation and Legal Considerations

Please note that we did not terminate him at all. Some people in my company intentionally allowed him to stay at our client company. The employee came to know that we found out his master's and BSc degrees were not genuine. So, he quickly resigned from our company by paying 2000 SGD (~1 Lakh Indian Rupees) to our company.

If we file a case against that employee, he says he's going to charge back on us as we had intentionally let him stay at our client company, thereby cheating our client, even knowing that his degrees weren't genuine. Moreover, since we had already settled this case, he says he's going to charge us for "False Accusing" as the settlement (money payment to our company as per the contract) had already happened, and we do not have the contract (agreement) papers as we shredded them after he paid us.

Furthermore, his resignation letter is helping him, as we did not terminate him at all!

In my understanding, even if the employee had been terminated, the initiation of criminal action does not entail double jeopardy. However, admittedly, the incident had occurred more than five years ago, and under Indian Law, the provisions of Section 468 of the Criminal Procedure Code may impede the action.

As the query is from Singapore, perhaps stringent action could be invoked.

If the employee commits any misconduct, the correct procedure is to conduct a domestic enquiry and investigate the incident. Depending on the merits of the case, a suitable punishment is awarded. During the enquiry, if the accused employee submits a letter of resignation, it can be held in abeyance until the completion of the enquiry. The domestic enquiry and the employee's resignation need to be viewed differently.

In your case, you did not follow the principles of natural justice. According to the terms of employment, he was required to pay a certain amount due to non-completion of the notice period, which he did, and he left smoothly. When separating an employee, you may have found comfort in the fact that he paid a substantial amount in lieu of the notice period. This comfort took precedence over legal concerns. However, after five years, the legal requirement has become a pressing issue.

There seems to be no reason to dwell on the past and reopen the case. What would you achieve by doing so? Only you know the best course of action.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

Thank you once again for your response, mate. So you must have a clear idea of the scenario. Final question to close this thread: Are we liable (accountable) as well since we didn't do a background check, did not terminate him, and deployed him to our client? Not going to take any action anyway. But please answer our above question?

You have asked, "Are we liable (accountable) as well as we didn't do a background check and did not terminate him and deployed to our client?"

After five years, you can say in your defense that you had done the background check and upon the discovery of the falsification of the documents, the employee was instructed to submit his resignation. The employee accepted responsibility for his misconduct and voluntarily resigned. Consequently, we consider the matter resolved.

Upon discovering the falsification of the documents, you took strict disciplinary action. This action speaks for itself regarding where you stand.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Spy Camera Incident on Resignation Day

Thanks a lot, friend, for your kindness and taking the time to answer our query.

That employee brought in a spy camera (attached to his t-shirt button) on his resignation day. Our HR, who already knew that he had submitted fabricated documents, helped him write the resignation letter because she was excited that our company was going to receive payment (2000 SGD dollars as per bond). He recorded this using his camera. He's claiming that if "our consultancy is aware of misrepresentation, why would an HR help him in writing a resignation letter instead of terminating him instantly?"

We got to know about this spy camera through one of our employees who is a mutual friend of that problematic employee. We would certainly like to close this case and forget everything. The reason we are much concerned is because of his spy cam recordings. Any suggestions to counter this issue?

In this case, as our HR and employees helped him in writing the resignation letter, we have to accept that our HR and employees weren't aware of this misrepresentation to counter-attack and defend ourselves, making it appear that our employees weren't aware of this fabrication, and that's why they helped him.

Moreover, if we accept that no background check was done and our HR and employees weren't aware of the misrepresentation until he resigned from the company, I guess our company is accountable for legal action as we didn't conduct a background check before deploying him to the client. The court would certainly question the point of doing a background check after the employee has left the company, especially after more than five years.

Additionally, he sent us a video clip that proves "we are aware of the misrepresentation." So, we have to accept that we are aware of it. If we acknowledge it, it means our HR and employees intentionally assisted him in writing a resignation letter. We seem to be in a difficult situation!

Please suggest a counter-idea for this.