Fraud: Three false degrees and six figure expenses claim

It seems not even those who make a living from the law abide by it, as a London law firm employee is caught CV fibbing.

Although employee screening should be at the heart of every recruitment process, many business – large and small – fail to carry out basic checks in the bid to save on costs and make a swift hire.

One city law firm certainly failed the educational screening test during one recruitment process when it offered a highly paid job to Zakia Sharif without, it would appear, making the effort to confirm her CV.

When city law firm Holman Fenwick & Willan recruited Zakia Sharif, a former office manager of Fulbright & Jaworski, they failed to verify her claims to have completed two degrees from Kings College, London and hold a legal qualification. The firm was the second to be fooled by her creative CV writing – gladly awarding her a £160,000 salary only days after she was sacked by her previous firm in 2008.

Although Ms Sharif, now 47, was finally caught out and is now facing jail time, her fraud is one which far too many people attempt and get away with away with as businesses cut down on employee screening procedures.

“Individuals who make exaggerated or false claims on their CVs are committing acts of deception and fraud. The law makes no distinction between that and what some might consider ‘an innocent white lie’,” says Jane Peters, head of Operations at AGS Risk Solutions.

Unfortunately, exaggerating her CV was not Ms Sharif’s only crime. As office manager for international law firm Fulbright & Jaworski between 2005 and 2008, she and her husband, Richard Simkin who was a partner at the firm made false expenses claims worth more than £100,000.

Ms Sharif pleaded guilty to five charges of deception, fraud and false accounting. She now faces up to 18 months in prison and will never be able to work as a legal executive again.