More than 10% of job seekers have a criminal record and the numbers are rising as tens of thousands of desperate people lie their way into a job.

Recruitment agency statistics show that the highest incidences of job applicants having a criminal record are in the metered taxi‚motor‚ security‚ government and retailing sectors.

Compounding the problem is that the government’s identification databases are not linked.

The Department of Home Affairs’ national identification system‚ based on fingerprint identification‚ cannot be accessed by the police through their Automated Fingerprint Identification System‚ which is linked to their criminal records centre.

The police are often asked to use their fingerprint system to check if a job applicant has a criminal record.

“It is vital that [the Home Affairs and police fingerprint databases be] linked‚” said Kirsten Halcrow‚ of Employers Mutual Protection Services.

“We are not talking about all the data that Home Affairs has made available. We are just asking for proof of identity to be made available so that job-application fraud can be stopped.”