21 Convicted Criminals Working in Swedish City's Elderly Care

SWEDEN - One employee was convicted of assaulting his wife and threatening to kill her. Others have convictions for drug offences, theft and drink-driving.

They all work, or have worked, in elderly care run by the city of Karlstad in western Sweden.

A review by the local newspaper NWT found 21 people with criminal convictions on the staff lists of the municipality's ten care homes - even though the city says it checks the police criminal record of everyone it hires.

Eight of the 21 were sentenced to prison or given a suspended sentence. Three more were fined and, according to the paper, still have at least three years before the convictions are wiped from the register.

Amphetamine in a cuddly toy

One of the cases is a woman whose home was searched by police. Officers found amphetamine hidden inside a cuddly toy, along with smaller amounts of other drugs.

Another employee was stopped by security guards on a night out when they found a knife and a knuckle-duster in her handbag.

The list also includes a person who stole goods from Ikea and one who has been convicted three times of minor drug offences.

Seventeen of the convictions were handed down in the past ten years. Four date back eleven to thirteen years.

"Everything else is serious"

The city insists it takes a strict line. Maria Wennerström, a department head in the care administration, said public urination and some speeding offences were about the only crimes it could accept.

"Those two are probably the few crimes we don't see as so serious. Otherwise I would say everything is serious," she told NWT.

Records are checked when staff are hired and when new temp contracts are signed. Since the start of the year, the city also checks the register of people suspected of crimes.

But once someone is on the payroll, the checks stop. HR chief Susanne Gustafsson said the law gives the city no way of finding out whether staff commit crimes while employed.

"If we find out that people have committed these crimes, we have to assess how it affects things, whether they can stay or not," she said.

Eight of the convicted staff work or have worked at Oskarslund, the city's largest care home. It has previously been criticised over how residents were treated.