Lisa Miles:

Catch me if you can?  Frank Abagnale 


Con man and fraudster who ran rings around the FBI before being employed by them. 

Would it be inappropriate for a convicted burglar to design and develop burglar alarms?

I am aware that many burglar alarm installation companies will not employ anybody with a conviction for burglary. Even spent convictions because they enhanced DBS check employees.

Is design and development a different story?

Arran Cameron: 
 

Would it be inappropriate for a convicted burglar to design and develop burglar alarms?

I am aware that many burglar alarm installation companies will not employ anybody with a conviction for burglary. Even spent convictions because they enhanced DBS check employees.

Is design and development a different story?

Lol … We used to have a member of my staff who taught basic electrical installation techniques to prison inmates and some clever spark (teacher) in a staff meeting thought it might be a useful addition if we included burgular alarm basics to the prison educational electrical syllabus. 

Needless to say that one kept us amused until a definative  response was given to the suggester.

Legh 

A local building was broken into and the burglar nicked the burglar alarm!

I suggested that the burglar could have been part of a crime ring because the burglar alarm was a model that could only be leased and not purchased. The crime ring intended to study and research the alarm because they knew that an identical model was protecting another building they intended to burgle in the future.

Designing burglar alarms and installing burglar alarms are very different jobs.

Many burglar alarm installation companies DBS check their staff (despite no legal requirements to do so) because it's a customer facing job and it's a selling point for the company.

One local burglar alarm installation company is run by a former police officer, with no technical knowledge. Somehow he manages to insist that all staff are enhanced DBS checked, and he imposes a zero tolerance policy for any criminal convictions, including spent convictions for minor trivial misdemeanors which took place back in the 1980s. It's also of note that he imposes the following conditions for employees - although he doesn't explicitly state it:

1 They must not have a degree in any subject.

2 They must be married at the time they take up employment.

3 They must submit details from their credit file every 6 months.

4 They must drink alcohol and be a social drinker, but not a drunkard.

5 They must not have any close relatives or in-laws from certain countries - the list of countries is kept secret but it has been found to include Russia, Pakistan, Iraq, and Nigeria although India and Poland seem OK.

6 Preferably a homeowner.

As the design and development of burglar alarms mostly takes place behind closed doors and is not generally a customer facing job then there should not be any requirements for companies to DBS check engineers.