On Thursday [30 January], a security director was disqualified from being a company director for five years.
Aston Shim, 65, pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court to being a director of a security company without a Security Industry Authority licence and to supplying unlicensed security guards.
Shim, the sole director of Samurai Security Limited, provided security to nine venues including a school and a local council.
Samurai Security Limited, Macbean Street, Woolwich, operated without Shim or the majority of his security guards being licensed by the SIA.
As a result of intelligence gathered by the SIA, investigators carried out checks on Shim throughout 2013 and conducted several visits to sites where Samurai Security Limited were contracted to provide security. The checks revealed eight security guards were working illegally.
Judge Moore, in sentencing Shim, disqualified him from working as a company director for five years, gave him a 120 hour Community Order, and fined him £8,000.
There are further proceedings against Shim under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The SIA’s Head of Investigation, Nathan Salmon, said:
“In passing this sentence, the court recognised that the company did not meet its obligations with regards to its core function of supplying licensed private security guards, in particular to locations serving vulnerable members of the public.”
“Despite Mr Shim’s previous good character, his complete lack of concern to his legal requirement to hold a licence, and his failure to ensure his guards were appropriately licensed has been deemed serious and he has been sentenced accordingly.”