We have a member of staff who has been working for us since August 2007. On their application form this employee did not state any previous employment.

It has now come to light that they worked for a major retail chain and resigned from their position pending disciplinary action and a police investigation for allegedly stealing cash from the companies social fund. The position with us allows them access to cash. This information was passed to us anonymously by a reliable source and we do not have reason to doubt this information.

We know that we cannot approach the former employer without the employee’s consent, but as this allegation is quite serious we feel that we would like to contact them anyway.

My dilemma is this: As this employee has witheld this information from us can we dismiss – we have a statement on the application form that states “witholding information relevant to this application may lead to dismissal”?

We will be holding a meeting with this person and asking them to clarify if they have had any previous employment or can offer any further information with regards to this allegation. What is the best way to approach this?

As it happens their performance during their time with us is not entirely satisfactory so the meeting will be a performance review which we will allow them the chance to “come clean”.

Many thanks
Alex Grundy