The Supreme Court ruled that people who fraudulently mislead their CV must pay back at least part of their wages if they are found falsifying qualifications and experience to an employer.
In 2017, Jon Andrews a former NHS chief executive was jailed after lying about his PhD and previous career to get a leading hospice role as well as other directorships for more than a decade. In total, Andrews earned £643,602.91.
Previous court hearings said that Andrews should not have to pay back his earnings because he did undertake the role that deemed that salary. However, on 18 August 2022 the Supreme Court hearing which cited the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, ordered that almost £97,000 must be repaid.
Giving the lead judgment, Lord Hodge and Lord Burrows noted that a total confiscation of wages would be disproportionate as Andrewes had performed his role satisfactorily. It would be correct to confiscate the difference between the higher earnings made as a result of the fraud and the lower earnings the defendant would have made if fraud hadn’t taken place.
The court summarised by saying ‘In many situations of cv fraud, it will be appropriate, as a pragmatic approximation of that profit, simply to base it on the percentage difference between the fraudster’s initial salary in the new job obtained by fraud and the fraudster’s salary in his or her prior job. Moreover, there is no need for much time and effort to be expended in assessing, even in a broad-brush way, the difference between the earnings with and without the cv fraud if it is clear that, in any event, that difference will exceed the recoverable amount.’
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