On 25 May 2016, the director of Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd, James Lovett and the operations manager, James Turner were sentenced at Nottingham Magistrates Court.
Their sentencing follows the guilty pleas Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd and Lovett entered in previous hearings and Turner’s guilty verdict on 22 April 2016. It was during the April hearing that the court heard how Lovett and Turner provided unlicensed guards between November 2014 and January 2015. Their actions amounted to several offences under the Private Security Industry Act, PSIA (2001). The details of this case are available on the SIA news web pages.
Lovett was sentenced to a conditional discharge of 12 months for Section 5 and Section 23 of the PSIA (2001) and received another conditional discharge of 12 months for Section 19 of the PSIA 2001. He was also ordered to pay costs of £1000 and a victim surcharge of £15 to be paid within 56 days.
Turner who is already serving a 28-month prison term for £300,000 in VAT Fraud, received 14 days imprisonment for each PSIA (2001) offence; Section 5, Section 23 and Section 9. He was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £80 and costs of £500. This sentencing is the result of joint investigations between the SIA and HMRC.
Both Turner and Lovett are disqualified from being directors from previous offences.
The company, Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd, was fined £1000 and ordered to pay costs of £4743 and a victim Surcharge of £100 within 28 days.
SIA Investigation Officer, Michael Bryan, commented on this case saying:
“The SIA is pleased with the sentencing verdict of the court. Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd, its director and operations manager had disregard for basic safeguards to ensure their contracts were fulfilled with SIA licensed operatives.
James Lovett as the director of the company also had a duty to disclose information regarding his company to the security industry regulator, he failed to fully comply with the request.
James Turner has been involved in the private security industry for a substantial period and has been prosecuted by the SIA before, when as a director of another security company he supplied unlicensed security operatives on contract. Yet in this case he continued a similar course of conduct with James Lovett demonstrating a disregard for the law through the use of unlicensed security operatives. Regulation within the private security industry exists to protect the public and those who work within the industry. The SIA robustly regulates the industry and will seek to prosecute those who chose to ignore the legislation in place.”