Brian Sims
Editor
Brian Sims
Editor
ADAM GILMORE, the owner of AG Security, has been found guilty of providing false information to the Security Industry Authority (SIA). Gilmore pleaded not guilty when appearing at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court on 21 May, but was found guilty after a trial on 10 September. Gilmore was fined £180 and ordered to pay costs of £650 in addition to a victim surcharge of £72.
The SIA asked Gilmore to provide information concerning door supervisors deployed to work at a venue in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. This was part of an investigation conducted by the regulator into allegations of unlicensed door supervisors operating at the venue.
On reviewing the information provided, SIA investigators found that two individuals appearing on the list of names lived in a different part of the country and said they had never worked for Gilmore. When the SIA then interviewed Gilmore under caution, he claimed the two men had worked for him and had copies of their SIA licences and identification.
Mark Chapman, criminal investigations manager at the SIA, said: “Our primary role as the regulator for the private security sector is to protect the public. We do this by enforcing our licensing and compliance regime. Knowingly or otherwise recklessly providing false information to the SIA is a criminal offence. This conviction demonstrates that we will actively pursue and prosecute security companies and individuals who adopt this approach.”
Door supervisor jailed
A door supervisor using a fraudulent SIA licence has been handed a 12-month prison sentence. Babatunde Kufuli used a licence bearing another person’s name to work illegally on 46 occasions between June and October 2021.
When SIA operatives questioned Kufuli while he was working as a door supervisor at a venue in Croydon in October 2021, he fled the scene.
Kufuli was summoned to attend the City of London Magistrates’ Court in January last year to answer the charges. He failed to appear and a warrant was then issued for his arrest. He was arrested on 29 May this year and, on 30 May, pleaded guilty to two charges when appearing at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court. He was sentenced at Aylesbury Crown Court on 4 September.
Public at risk
Jenny Hart, criminal investigations manager at the SIA, stated: “When somebody works in the private security industry with a cloned licence, they put the public, their colleagues and themselves at risk.”
Hart continued: “Kufuli thought he could take a shortcut to make money, while putting people he was hired to protect in danger. When questioned, he ran from the SIA’s investigators in a bid to escape punishment. Assisted by both the Thames Valley Police and the Metropolitan Police Service, we concentrated our efforts and combined our expertise to track him down.”
In conclusion, Hart observed: “This conviction shows that we will not stop pursuing those seeking to escape justice by going into hiding. We work with the police to locate and ensure the arrest of those who commit these types of crimes and bring them to the court in custody.”
Licensed security operatives undergo robust training requirements to help them protect the public. Untrained and unvetted security operatives with fake or cloned licenses put the public at risk.
