September 2007 Issue
Compliance
Faked ResumE Dupes Permit Holder
Editor’s Note: The following story appears in place of the usual roundup of Compliance statistics, which returns next month.
The sentencing of an Edmonton man for fraudulently portraying himself as a Florida-licensed engineer should serve as a cautionary tale for all APEGGA permit holders. “Always check resumés, and always check them thoroughly,” said Dave Todd, P.Eng., APEGGA Director, Compliance. “Also, insist that those who say they are engineers or geoscientists have APEGGA licensure or at the very least are seeking it.”
Michael Patrick Dunn, 43, was given a one-year conditional sentence July 3 after pleading guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000 and one count of impersonation. The sentence, handed down in Provincial Court in Edmonton, includes six months of house arrest.
Mr. Dunn faked a resumé to land a position in January 2006 as manager of projects with an APEGGA permit-holding firm. He oversaw the work of engineers and project managers for the company. For several years before that, Mr. Dunn was a project manager with another permit holder.
The most recent employer brought charges against him, after a background
check triggered suspicions. Mr. Dunn had used the registration number of a civil
engineer in Florida also named Michael Dunn but with a different middle name.
In addition to business education, Mr. Dunn’s resumé claimed he had a bachelor’s
and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Florida State University,
as well as a metallurgy engineering diploma from Mohawk College at McMaster University
in Hamilton.
Most of the education he listed was shown to be false.
Mr. Todd, who provided the court with a victim impact statement on behalf of APEGGA, said licensure is always important, regardless of whether a new hire will take responsibility for actual geoscience or engineering work. “If your company relies on the ethical behaviour, the professionalism and the ability to take on complex projects that stem from an APEGGA licence, make sure your engineers and geoscientists have one,” he said.
In Mr. Dunn’s case, the information gathering required by the Board of Examiners would have quickly uncovered the deceit. Instead, the company that brought charges against him lost more than $18,000 by paying someone with no engineering credentials.
The bigger issue for APEGGA, however, is public protection. “APEGGA believes that a licensed professional’s primary responsibility is to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public, and that this responsibility is not mitigated when the professional is providing service to the public through an employer,” says the Association’s victim impact statement.
It goes on to explain that a licence requires that professionals work competently
within their areas of academic qualification and experience, and adhere to the
APEGGA Code of Ethics. This
qualifies them to give the public sound advice it can rely upon.
“The success or failure of a project and/or a company very often depends on that advice, as does the safety of the public.”
In the Michael Dunn case, that connection between public welfare and the APEGGA licence was well understood by the courts. At the sentencing hearing, Provincial Court Judge Michael Stevens-Guille asked right away for the APEGGA victim impact statement.
Said Executive Director & Registrar Neil Windsor, P.Eng.: “In some of the cases we’ve brought under the EGGP Act, the courts may not have fully understood how important it is that people who hold themselves out as professionals are licensed. But in this case — a criminal case — the judge clearly demonstrated that he knows there’s nothing trivial about someone pretending to be an engineer, even if it’s only on a resumé, and that APEGGA has a critical interest on behalf of the public.
“That’s refreshing, to say the least.”