Yesterday [30 October] at Coventry Magistrates Court, a security company owner was found guilty of failing to provide information to the Security Industry Authority.
In February the SIA required Anita Corbett, owner of A1 Protection Services, to provide information about her customers after intelligence was received concerning an employee, her son Matthew Corbett.
Anita Corbett, 55, failed to disclose that her son was an employee, operating as an unlicensed door supervisor, and that he provided security at an under 18s event.
In 2009, Matthew Corbett was convicted for offences that precluded him from holding an SIA licence, and which also led to a ban on him working with children.
In August, Matthew Corbett pleaded guilty to engaging in licensable conduct without a licence and was sentenced to a community order requiring him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay almost £6,000 as a contribution to prosecution costs. At the same hearing Anita Corbett entered a not guilty plea.
Yesterday, the court heard Anita Corbett claim that she would not risk her job as a teaching assistant to cover up for her son, and her omission of information was a genuine oversight.
In finding Anita Corbett guilty, the Magistrates said: “We have listened very carefully to everything that has been said… but we do not find that there was a reasonable excuse for your failure to provide the information requested by the SIA.”
Anita Corbett was fined £1000, ordered to pay £2265 in costs and a £100 victim surcharge.
Head of Investigation, Nathan Salmon said: “The SIA pursued this prosecution because Mrs Corbett failed to provide information about her business; A1 Protection Services.
“The case is aggravated because an operative for the business, her son Matthew, had serious previous convictions which preclude him from operating in the private security industry. Mrs Corbett failed to provide information regarding premises where Matthew had been working as a door supervisor.”