A new vetting certificate needed

Marty Sharpe at Stuff reports:

A recruitment agency manager says he has lost faith in criminal record checks after a loophole in the law brought him close to employing a child-sex offender.

The loophole means convictions for which name suppression is granted do not appear on a person’s criminal record unless that person requests a full record. It was brought to light this month by The Dominion Post after it revealed that a voluntary organisation in Hawke’s Bay had unknowingly taken on a man convicted of raping his daughter because his conviction was omitted from his criminal record.

In the latest case, the branch manager of a national recruitment agency requested a criminal record check from the Justice Ministry on a job applicant, and was told there was “no information held or able to be released”.

By the time the letter arrived, the applicant had already admitted he had a past conviction for sexually assaulting a minor, and was not offered the job.

The unnamed manager, who has been in the recruitment business for more than a decade, said he called the ministry and was told: “He may have been telling the truth, but we had a suppression order so could not tell you anything.”

“I said, ‘Well hang on, you’ve sent me a ministry document that makes no mention of his serious crime. I could have put him in a position with a cleaning outfit contracted to a school. I can’t see how that’s right.’

“She told me the only person who can overrule the suppression was the judge.

I’m not sure if you need a law change for this, but what may solve this issue is a certificate that does not detail what the convictions are, but states the person has convictions.

Where name suppression was granted to protect the victim (as the offender may have been a relative) should not end up creating further victims.