Honest mistake or purposeful misrepresentation? Is there a difference when it comes to candidate representations?

In a recent search, our recruitment intelligence engine identified a number of great candidates for a customer's position.  One candidate checked all the boxes, great education, great experience, three highly sought after, extremely applicable professional designations listed on his resume, he looked perfect.  

Unfortunately, we found a problem during credentialling, you see, the candidate had allowed one of his professional certifications to lapse seven years prior, yet, was still holding out on his resume that he had this professional designation.   

When we challenged him, he profusely apologized, said he had made an honest mistake, forgetting to renew.  Interestingly, the year after allowing his designation to lapse, he applied to and was hired for a role with a large US bank.  Its likely that he, at least in part, was hired at the bank because of his misrepresented credentials.  

Of course, we exited him from the process, because we believe that authenticity really matters.  In this case, he either demonstrated a lack of care or a lack of ethics - regardless of the cause, both were candidate killers for our customer.