Lorraine started as a nanny looking after my 1 year old mid March. She was nice and pleasant and my son took to her. Prior to starting, I asked her to email her DBS certificate, First aid document and references to me. She started work as agreed but gave excuses for not providing the background documents. It turned out she was also not Ofsted registered as she claimed because she didn't have a dbs certificate. Being in a really tight spot, I decided to give her a chance to provide the documents during the week. She gave long explanations for why she couldn't provide the documents within the first couple of days but never produced them.

We agreed she would start at 8am and finish at 6pm as I have early morning calls for work but was flexible on closing time. She always turned up 15-30mins late and didn't call ahead to let me know she was running late. On Friday of the first week, about an hour into her day, she came to me crying uncontrollably that her mum had been rushed to A&E at Kings College Hospital and needed to leave. I had my suspicions immediately because of the way she was reacting but tried my best to comfort her. Before she left, she however calmed down long enough to ask for her pay and provided bank account details. I knew then that I was being spun a long story but she reassured me she would be at work on Monday. On Saturday, she texted to ask about her money which I promptly transferred to her.

Monday came and Lorraine didn't turn up. I called and texted and got no response. Just before 6pm, she texted back to tell me her mum had passed and she wouldn't be coming back to work that week. I was devastated and didn't know how to feel because my instincts told me this wasn't true but there was nothing I could do. Anyway, I never heard back from her. So I was very surprised to see that she had tried to find another job with another family here without so much of an explanation to me. I simply have no words for her...

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