Furniture movers vetted before being employed

Furniture removal companies which operate around Marlborough say they screen all potential employees for criminal convictions before hiring.

The comments follow the sentencing of Blenheim man, Samuel Wiremu John Edmonds, 28, who broke into a woman's home and sexually assaulted her on November 13.

During his sentencing in the Blenheim District Court on Friday it was revealed he was an employee of a furniture removal company who helped the woman move in several months earlier.

He was sentenced to seven months in prison after admitting two charges of sexual violation and one charge of burglary.

On Friday Judge John Walker suppressed the name of the company Edmonds worked for at the time of the offending.

However, the company's co-owner told the Express it contracted another company in Marlborough to help shift furniture for the woman.

"In that case when we take staff on from other companies to unload for a few hours there's no vetting done, but we presume it would have been done by that company," he said.

Employees of the company sign a form which says a police check will be done on them before they are hired. However, there were still cases where companies had issues with employees even though they had been screened, he said.

The Edmonds case was the first of its kind he had heard of in 40 years in the furniture moving business, he said.

The company owner who employed Edmonds on a casual basis said he had every employee screened.

"[But] you can never judge a character by what you see and what you read ... that's a lesson. ... if it said [the employee] was a rapist I wouldn't hire him; if they're a petty thief or have some misdemeanour you've got to use your common sense and say, `let's hope he's learned'.

"[Edmonds] went there as an opportunist and that's what he is."

Another removal company said it ran a police check on every potential employee. Workers would not be considered for a job if they had any convictions regardless of what they were.

The company had a memorandum of understanding with a labour force supplier that workers had been police-checked, he said.

- The Marlborough Express SIMON WONG

Last updated 10:37 13/02/2012