The chairman of Pertemps Group has admitted that his company “slipped up” in hiring a former managing director of a Pertemps group company who lost her claim against Pertemps for sex discrimination and victimisation. Earlier this month a Birmingham Employment Tribunal accepted Watts’ evidence that Smith’s claims were “a pack of lies”. Watts told Recruiter that after he looked into Smith’s background, “I did chastise my directors”. And he admitted that the details around Smith’s departure from a previous employer only came out after he hired a private detective. Watts advised recruiters to “take more time over references”, although he admitted that sometimes this was difficult. And he called for a change in the practice of employers writing “bland references” so as to avoid possible legal claims. “I would like people to be able to be able to tell the truth, and that references should be given in confidence between employers as it used to be.” Watts added that he had no sympathy for employers who didn’t stand up to vexatious claims: “If you allow people of a vicious and vindictive nature to score over honest, clean, decent busineses, then you are making a cross for yourself that you will have to bear.”