Private security has always had a criminal element; but we were told it was being driven out by a tough new regulator.
So began a BBC1 Panorama TV documentary on January 21. Mark Rowe writes.
Private security has always had a criminal element; but we were told it was being driven out by a tough new regulator. So began a BBC1 Panorama TV documentary on January 21. Mark Rowe writes.
The BBC reporter Samantha Poling previously reported on criminality in Scotland (Security Wars, the title of a 2004 report). The news last year of Security Industry Authority licences issued to 11,000 illegal immigrants prompted her to revisit the subject. A ‘senior official’ of the SIA contacted the BBC. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he spoke of weaknesses in legislation exploited by those that the SIA was designed to put out of business. "Frustrated probably is the easiest and simplest word to use, because when you see the loopholes used to the extent they are, you realise how ineffective you are. People within the industry know what is happening and wonder why the SIA are not capable of tackling these areas of concern head on."
First stop was Liverpool, home, according to Panorama, to ‘a serious criminal underworld’ taking advantage of the city’s building and regeneration boom. Speaking to camera were Merseyside Police Chief Supt Andy Cooke; and the Rev Dr Sharon Ledbetter, whose charity building homes in Toxteth had visits from people saying ‘we want to be your security company’. As Chief Supt Cooke said, there is no direct intimidation. But after Ledbetter said no to the security company, property burned down. Next stop: the police and SIA launched Operation Seahog (in 2006). Police discovered the majority of the city’s security staff remained unlicenced; regularly firms were operating as if the SIA did not exist. Merseyside Police footage showed police knocking in front doors and climbing through windows.
The first of two Scots cases was that of Lewis Rodden, of West Coast Security, jailed in 2005 for among other things possessing a samurai sword and assaulting a rival company’s security officer on a construction site. When Samantha Poling put up pretend signs for a construction site, two of Rodden’s sons approached the site, offering security in the name of P & B Contracts, with a Glasgow phone number. There was secret filming of Lewis Rodden, who, while still doing security work, was, as the programme made plain, doing nothing wrong, by calling himself a security consultant. SIA chief executive Mike Wilson was next on camera, confirming that if someone calls themselves a consultant, that is not a licensable activity, and cannot be touched, unless that person has a ‘hands on influence’ in a company.
Which brought the programme to Robert Wright, who had called Samantha Poling from prison to do with his extradition fight. There was Estonian police footage and interviews about how Wright had been caught smuggling drugs. Poling arranged to meet Wright in Yorkshire, who, secretly filmed, claimed to be working as a security consultant. Again filmed secretly, he showed her around the head office of Sheffield-based contract guarding company Feba Custodia. Wright appeared to have mixed up the SIA’s approved contractor scheme and the National Security Inspectorate’s gold scheme, because he claimed that the company was ‘SIA gold’. The company is in fact SIA-approved. He also claimed that the company had 1200 staff. He said that he was unable to show control room CCTV images because the system was ‘down’. Panorama made plain that there was no suggestion that Feba Custodia was involved in criminality. While Wright claimed that the company worked for household retail names, as Panorama added, because sub-contracting is common, it might be that the people Wright claimed to have as clients, did indirectly employ him. After the documentary aired there was local fall-out as Sheffield College – which gave a guarding contract to Feba Custodia last year – told the local press it would be ‘discussing the issues’.
Mike Wilson at the SIA said: "It is perfectly possible for a company to get approved contractor status by simply having on its books directors who do not show up as having a criminal record, if they have someone who hasn’t declared their direct activities, that’s acting in a shadow capacity, perhaps calling themselves a consultant, we would look at that very seriously, and if we found that in an approved company we would almost certainly remove that [approved] status."
A lesser chunk of the programme – lesser because presumably of less interest to a general audience, but just as relevant to the security industry – was given over to licence training shortcomings. A man sat training towards the door staff licence, run by Up Front Security of Glasgow. The man received less than 12 hours of training compared with the 28 he should have, and again secret filming of the classroom showed the trainee able to refer to notes during the written exam; and to take a mobile phone call; without the invigilator, who sometimes went out of the room, trying to stop him (and a fellow trainee who did likewise). The SIA insider commented: "At the end of the day, they are getting their certificate, but the certificate is a worthless piece of paper." When Panorama put their findings to those concerned, Febia Custodia refused to comment (and there was footage of a scene when Samantha Poling went back to Sheffield but didn’t get past the receptionist) and Up Front said it had revised its arrangements and tightened up invigilation. And the documentary closed with Panorama giving its summarised findings to the SIA. Mike Wilson said on camera: "We have issued 250,000 licences, we deal with over 400 approved companies … it would be unrealistic to imagine that there isn’t some incidence of the sorts of activities to which you allude, but it isn’t commonplace throughout the industry."
But the very last word went to the SIA insider: "The industry is still bedevilled with criminality, poor standards, poor conditions of work … there is much more work to be done before we sit back and say, job done."
As noted in the January issue, the BSIA was conspicuously silent late last year during the SIA-badged illegals affair. It was prompt to comment after Panorama went to air.
BSIA Chief Executive, David Dickinson, said afterwards: "The existence of a criminal minority within the security industry has been well known for some years and the need to eliminate this unwanted element is one of the reasons why the BSIA supported the industry’s regulation … we will offer every assistance to the Security Industry Authority in their work to seek out criminal operators and enforce the legislation. Our members are determined to provide information to the authorities on such criminal elements wherever possible. We share concerns about any incidence of examination fraud and are keen to work with training bodies to ensure that this cannot take place."
The day after Panorama aired, Professional Security was a guest at the quarterly meeting of Ex Police In Commerce. On a show of hands, about half the EPIC members there had seen the programme. Some doubt was cast on whether closing the consultancy loophole would be enough; would not the criminals call themselves something else?! While one man spoke of being ‘appalled’ by the TV findings, feeling was, perhaps, summed up by one who said: “We should have been licened years ago, but we haven’t got it right.”
