Security director prosecuted for breaching Private Security Industry Act

Hill’s company ACE Security Specialist Ltd was fined £100, while Hill was also ordered to pay court costs of £500.

This was the final case in a series of prosecutions resulting from the Security Industry Authority’s (SIA) inspection and enforcement operation in venues across Telford, Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton. The operation was carried out with assistance from West Mercia Police on 22 October 2021.

During the operation, the SIA’s investigators found a security operative, namely Stephen Dion, working without a licence at a Shrewsbury night club. Further investigation identified Kenneth Bailey as his manager and an SIA licence holder. He was also performing the role of head door supervisor at the club. Bailey was prosecuted on 28 June 2023 for managing illegal security. Dion was prosecuted on 4 November 2022 after entering an immediate guilty plea for working without a licence.

Further investigations revealed that the supplier for Dion was ACE Security Specialist Ltd. Hill was the sole director of the company and has since placed the business into voluntary liquidation.

Neglectful conduct

During the hearing, District Judge Richard Bennett observed that there were plenty of opportunities when Dion’s licence could have been checked, but Hill failed to do so. In that regard, Hill was neglectful in his duty as a director. It was reasonable to ask Bailey to have carried out those checks and, had he done so, Hill would have realised that Dion had been unlicensed.

At sentencing, Judge Bennett commented: “As a director of a company, Mr Hill had considerable responsibility and it was not merely a label. Ignorance of the law is no defence.”

Jenny Hart, one of the SIA’s criminal investigations managers, noted: “This is an example of what happens when those entrusted with public safety ignore the law. The actions of Stephen Dion, Kenneth Bailey and David Hill breached the Private Security Industry Act 2001 and the public’s trust in licensed security. By letting Dion work without a valid SIA licence, Bailey put the safety of the public at risk. Hill was negligent in his role as a director and should have been vigilant of the actions of those working for him.”

Former security boss pleads guilty to supplying unlicensed security

On 20 December last year, former company director Shaun O’Neill and his business were sentenced at Warrington Magistrates’ Court.

O’Neill pleaded guilty to employing unlicensed security operatives. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £423 and a victim surcharge £400.

I Guard Security entered guilty pleas to three separate offences of employing unlicensed security operatives in Merseyside and Cheshire. The company was fined £3,000 with £424 in costs and a victim surcharge of £1,200, amounting to a total sum of £4,624.

Jack O’Neill, the nephew of Shaun O’Neill, pleaded guilty to working without a licence, for which he was fined £202, £423 in costs and a victim surcharge of £81.

The SIA brought the prosecutions following a joint enforcement initiative carried out on 22 October 2022 and involving Cheshire Police and Cheshire West Council licensing officers who visited licensed premises in Northwich, Cheshire.

Additional checks

SIA investigators attended at two bars in Northwich and spoke to two door supervisors, one at each venue. Further checks revealed that the licences of the two individuals had expired on 7 and 14 August 2022 respectively.

Examination of the signing-in register at the premises revealed that they had signed-in at the venues numerous times from when their licences had expired until the date of the inspection.

The door supervisors were cautioned. On being challenged, each admitted to working as a door supervisor while in possession of an expired licence and stated that they had been employed by Shaun O’Neill of I Guard Security.

Subsequently, Shaun O’Neill was interviewed by the SIA’s criminal investigation team on 1 June last year at a location in Liverpool for the October 2022 offences.

Shaun O’Neill, who was sole director of I Guard Security Ltd at the times of the offences, claimed that the two female operatives were not employees of I Guard Security during the times that they had worked unlicensed.

In early June 2023, further offences relating to Shaun O’Neill and I Guard Security were identified and incorporated into the investigation.

CCTV footage

While attending an inspection at a bar in Southport, Merseyside on 16 June 2023, SIA investigators spoke with a male who appeared to be engaged in licensable conduct. He produced an SIA licence carrying the name S O’Neill. It was known that this male was not S O’Neill and, when challenged, he admitted that he was Jack O’Neill.

Jack O’Neill is not the holder of an SIA licence. He said that his uncle, Shaun O’Neill, had given him his SIA licence and asked him to work at the venue.

Examination of the door register at Level 1 revealed that an S O’Neill had signed-in on the register an additional eight times stretching back to 19 May 2023. Examination of CCTV footage from the venue also provided evidence that Jack O’Neill was working as a door supervisor at these times.

Shaun O’Neill was further interviewed for the June 2023 offences on 21 August last year. He stated that Jack O’Neill was his nephew and that Jack had taken his own SIA licence without his permission. Neither was he aware that Jack O’Neill was working at Level 1.

Jack O’Neill declined the opportunity to be interviewed.

Deploying illegal security

Mark Chapman, one of the SIA’s criminal investigations managers, informed Security Matters: “Shaun O’Neill and I Guard Security have been sentenced having admitted to deploying illegal security into the Cheshire and Merseyside night-time economies. The SIA licensing regime exists to protect the public.”

Chapman added: “Mr O’Neill let down his client and the patrons of the venues on several occasions, showing a pattern of negligence and poor conduct. We are grateful to our enforcement partners at Cheshire Police and the Cheshire West Council for their assistance in helping us to identify the licence offending.”