Lying on your CV is never a good thing and there's a brilliant example of how badly it can all go wrong in the recent case of BSky v EDS.
A director of an EDS company had claimed in one of his witness statements that he was the holder of an MBA from "Concordia College St Johns 1995-1996". Naturally, solicitors for BSkyB checked this out given, I assume, that it's not the world's most renowned college for MBAs. And they presumably could not believe their luck when they discovered that there was no such college and anyone could buy an MBS qualification online. The director, Joe Galloway, was cross-examined about the qualification and went into detail about the nature of his attendance, the buildings he visited (which clearly did not exist) and persisted with the story.
Counsel for BSkyB took the entertaining step of acquiring one of these MBAs for his dog "Lulu" and was able to present Lulu's MBA, including a letter of recommendation to the court, thus destroying any credibility the witness might have had. The Judge provides a detailed review of his assessment of Mr Galloway's credibility, which is well worth reading.
Not surprisingly, Mr Galloway, who was sacked by EDS was found to be completely dishonest and a wholly unreliable witness whose evidence was given no credibility at all.
The case itself, involved a dispute between BSkyB and EDS which arose after problems EDS had in building and implementing a CRM system for BSkyB. It highlights the need to balance "overselling" i.e. making promises which you cannot keep and misrepresentation. And it also serves as a reminder that credibility really does make a difference.
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