Detectives have begun a fraud investigation into an unnamed employment agency after a 黑洞社区 columnist alleged that it was illicitly supplying CSCS
The inquiry was sparked by a column by John Smith in 黑洞社区 on 6 February, in which he wrote that he had received a black market CSCS card from an unnamed employment agency.

Detective constable Dave Bolton of Hampshire CID said that he was investigating claims that companies were supplying construction staff with false employment records in order to enable them to obtain work on site.

The case was referred to Hampshire by the Norfolk constabulary, where the Construction Industry Training Board's national construction college is based.

DC Bolton said: "We are making inquiries concerning allegations that were made in your magazine in February."

He declined to comment further on the case, saying that investigations were at an early stage.

In his column, Smith said that a company he had never heard of before verified that he had worked for them for many years and that he was a fully trained and competent site surveyor.

He wrote: "I now have a CSCS card that shows I am an accredited site surveyor, which is not true."

Smith, who obtained the CSCS card to find out how easy it was to cheat the system, has since destroyed the card.

After publication of Smith's column it is understood that the CITB, the quango that administers the scheme, held an urgent internal inquiry and decided to ask police to investigate the claims.

An source close to the inquiry likened the fraud to that of a policeman, teacher or other professional person falsely signing and verifying a passport document. He said: "The employment agency involved want people on its books and is using a building firm to sign off workers' skills and ID credentials. It is likely that the police investigation team will be contacting the employment agency involved this week."

  • The RICS this week announced that from 5 April quantity surveyors would have access to CSCS cards.