The offences involved include the supply of an unlicensed security officer, providing false information and failing to provide information to the Security Industry Authority when asked to do so.
Ahmad Jaber was the director of AJ Security Consultancy Limited and Charles White was its operations manager. The company, based in Old Bedford Road in Luton, supplied security officers to sites in the Luton area and also in London.
Both men were investigated by the Security Industry Authority following an operation in December last year, during which a man was detected working without an SIA licence at a demolition site in High Street Kensington. When questioned by the SIA, the man claimed that he was an unpaid volunteer.
The SIA launched a formal investigation and discovered that this individual was in fact working for AJ Security Consultancy Limited. He had completed 684 hours of paid work as a security officer without holding the required SIA licence to carry out this role.
Failure to provide necessary information
When Jaber and White were contacted by the SIA, both men failed to provide information to the investigators about the site and gave false statements in an attempt to cover up the true nature of the work being carried out.
At Luton Magistrates’ Court on Monday 24 October, 46-year-old Jaber of Westlecote Gardens, Luton pleaded guilty to one offence of supplying an unlicensed security officer, two counts of failing to provide information and two counts of providing false information to the SIA.
He was fined GB pound 2,920 for the five offences ( GB pound 760 for the first offence and GB pound 540 each for the other four), and was ordered to pay SIA costs of GB pound 2,000 as well as a GB pound 15 victim surcharge.
White, 53 (of Redgrave Gardens in Luton), pleaded guilty to one count of supplying an unlicensed security officer, one count of failing to provide information and two counts of providing false information to the SIA.
Subsequently, White was fined GB pound 1,470 for the four offences ( GB pound 465 for the first offence and GB pound 335 for the other three), and was ordered to pay SIA costs of GB pound 2,000 and a GB pound 15 victim surcharge.
Jaber and White’s SIA licences have both been suspended, and are in the process of being revoked so that they will not be able to work in the security industry.
Comment from the Regulator
The SIA’s director of compliance, intelligence and communication, Dave Humphries, said: “I’m pleased with the outcome of this investigation. AJ Security Consultancy Limited supplied an unlicensed individual. The director and operations manager allowed this to happen and then tried to cover up their actions by providing false information to the SIA. The conviction of Jaber and White demonstrates how seriously the court viewed these offences.”
Humphries concluded: “We are now in the process of revoking Jaber and White’s SIA licences which means that they will no longer be able to have involvement in the private security industry. Their security business could now face closure.”
