On 22 April 2016, at Nottingham Magistrates Court, James Turner was found guilty of providing unlicensed guards and other offences under the Private Security Industry Act, PSIA (2001). Turner was the Operations Manager at Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd. The director, James Lovett, pleaded guilty to offences under the PSIA (2001) at an earlier hearing.
The court heard that Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd provided three unlicensed security guards on contract to a golf club in Nottingham from November 2014 to January 2015. Two of the unlicensed guards who worked during this period were said to be on work experience and not undertaking security guarding duties. The third security operative was employed by Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd but worked on an expired SIA licence.
During the investigation, Lovett was asked to provide details of the work experience arrangement and the third unlicensed guard. He failed to do so, a Section 19 offence under the PSIA (2001). Lovett pleaded guilty to supplying unlicensed guards, a Section 5 offence of the PSIA (2001). As Lovett was the director at the time, he was also found guilty of consent or neglect for employing unlicensed guards, a Section 23 PSIA (2001) offence. Lovett is no longer director of Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd.
Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd was also found guilty of supplying unlicensed security operatives contrary to Section 5 PSIA (2001).
Turner, the operations manager at Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd, pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was responsible for scheduling the working hours but denied knowing that the unlicensed guards were deployed to the golf club’s contract. However after trial he was found guilty of deploying unlicensed guards, contrary to Section 5 under the PSIA (2001). Turner also failed to notify the SIA of a previous arrest and charge, a Section 9 PSIA (2001) offence. Consequently, his SIA licence was revoked in August 2015.
The case has been adjourned till 25 May 2016 when Paramount Monitoring and Response Ltd, Lovett and Turner will be sentenced.
Michael Bryan, SIA Investigations Officer said, “The SIA is pleased with the guilty verdict of the court in relation to James Turner, the Operations Manager, and the Company. James Turner has been involved in the Private Security Industry for a substantial period and has been prosecuted by the Authority before, when as a director of another security company he supplied unlicensed security operatives on contract. He continued a similar course of conduct with James Lovett and demonstrated a disregard for the legislation within the Act by using unlicensed security operatives and the personal responsibility he had to notify the SIA of criminal proceedings. The SIA robustly regulates the security industry and will seek to prosecute those who chose to ignore the legislation in place.”