Former security boss pleads guilty to supplying unlicensed security
On Wednesday 20 December 2023, former company director Shaun O'Neill and his company were sentenced at Warrington Magistrates' Court.
Mr O’Neill pleaded guilty to employing unlicensed security operatives. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £423 and a victim surcharge of £400.
I Guard Security entered guilty pleas to three separate offences of employing unlicensed security operatives in Merseyside and Cheshire. The company was fined £3,000 with £424 in costs and a victim surcharge of £1,200, amounting to a total of £4,624.
Jack O’Neill, the nephew of Shaun O’Neill, pleaded guilty to working without a licence, for which he was fined £202, £423 in costs and a victim surcharge of £81.
The Security Industry Authority (SIA) brought the prosecutions following a joint enforcement initiative on 22 October 2022 with Cheshire Police and Cheshire West Council licensing officers at licensed premises in Northwich, Cheshire.
SIA investigators attended at two bars in Northwich and spoke to two door supervisors, one at each venue. Further checks revealed that the licences of the two individuals had expired on 7 and 14 August 2022 respectively.
Examination of the signing-in register at the premises revealed that they had signed in at the venues numerous times from when their licences had expired until the date of the inspection.
The door supervisors were cautioned. On being challenged, each admitted to working as a door supervisor while in possession of an expired licence and that they had been employed by Shaun O’Neill of I Guard Security.
Subsequently, Shaun O’Neill was interviewed by the SIA Criminal Investigation team on 1 June 2023 at a location in Liverpool for the October 2022 offences.
Shaun O’Neill, who was sole director of I Guard Security Ltd at the times of the offences, claimed that the two female operatives were not employees of I Guard Security during the times that they had worked unlicensed.
In early June 2023 further offences relating to Shaun O’Neill and I Guard Security were identified, and these were incorporated into the investigation.
While attending an inspection at a bar in Southport, Merseyside on 16 June 2023, SIA investigators spoke with a male who appeared to be engaged in licensable conduct. He produced an SIA licence in the name S. O’Neill. It was known that this male was not S. O’Neill and when challenged he admitted that he was Jack O’Neill.
Jack O’Neill is not the holder of an SIA licence. He said that his uncle, Shaun O’Neill had given him his SIA licence and asked him to work at the venue.
Examination of the door register at Level 1 revealed that an S. O’Neill had signed in the register an additional eight times going back to 19 May 2023. Examination of CCTV from the venue also provided evidence that Jack O’Neill was working as a door supervisor at these times.
Shaun O’Neill was further interviewed for the June 2023 offences on 21 August 2023.
He stated that Jack O’Neill was his nephew and that Jack had taken his own SIA licence without his permission nor was he aware that Jack O’Neill was working at Level 1.
Jack O’Neill declined the opportunity to be interviewed.
Mark Chapman, one of the SIA’s criminal investigations managers, said:
Shaun O’Neill and I Guard Security have been sentenced having admitted to deploying illegal security into the Cheshire and Merseyside night-time economies. The SIA licensing regime exists to protect the public.
Mr O’Neill let down his client and the patrons of the venues on several occasions, showing a pattern of negligence and poor conduct.
We are grateful to our enforcement partners Cheshire Police and Cheshire West Council for their assistance in helping us to identify the licence offending.
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Notes to editors
By law, security operatives working under contract must hold and display a valid SIA licence. Read about SIA enforcement and penalties.
The offences relating to the Private Security Industry Act 2001 that are mentioned above are:
- Section 3 – engaging in licensable conduct without a licence
- Section 5 – employing unlicensed persons in licensable conduct
- Section 5 (by way of Section 23) – consent, connivance or neglect of directors for employing unlicensed guards
Further information
The Security Industry Authority is the regulator of the UK’s private security industry. Our purpose is to protect the public through effective regulation of the private security industry and working with partners to raise standards across the sector. We are responsible for licensing people who do certain jobs in the private security industry and for approving private security companies who wish to be part of the voluntary ‘Approved Contractor Scheme’. We are marking 20 years since we were set up in 2003 and issued the first SIA licences in April 2004.
The SIA is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Home Office. For more information, visit: www.gov.uk/sia.
You can also find us on LinkedIn @Security Industry Authority, Facebook @theSIAUK, YouTube @TheSIAUK and X (formerly known as Twitter) @SIAuk.