Security Industry Authority
On Thursday 9 February 2023 Shakeel Ahmed was sentenced at Bradford Magistrates Court to a 12-month community order with a 150-hour unpaid work duty. He was also ordered to pay 600 prosecution costs and a victim surcharge of 95. The sentence follows Ahmeds guilty plea on 11 October 2022 to forging documents in a fraudulent appeal against an SIA decision to reject his door supervisors licence application.
Mr Ahmed applied for an SIA licence to work in the private security industry on 12 March 2021. The SIA rejected his licence application due to previous criminality. Mr Ahmed sent four supposedly independent character references to the SIA in support of an appeal. The SIAs decision team realised that the character references were either fraudulent or forged, due to suspicious similarities between them.
The SIAs criminal investigations team began an investigation into the sources of the character references on 23 August 2021. One supposed source told SIA investigators that he didnt know Mr Ahmed. Another said that although he knew of Mr Ahmed, he had not provided a character reference for him. An SIA investigator confirmed that the proposed reference and signature did not belong to him.
A third man confirmed to SIA investigators that he was a friend of Mr Ahmed. However, he supplied a statement stating that he had not given him a reference.
On 25 November 2021 SIA investigators interviewed Mr Ahmed under caution. During the interview Mr Ahmed repeatedly denied that he had forged the character references. Eventually he admitted that he had produced four independent character references and forged the signatures on three of them. His intention was to use the forgeries to appeal against the SIAs decision to refuse him a licence.
Jenny Hart, the SIAs criminal investigations manager said:
The purpose of the SIAs licensing regime is to protect the public. The SIA applies significant scrutiny during the decision process to assess whether someone is fit and proper to hold an SIA licence. Mr Ahmeds previous criminality had led to the decision that he was not suitable to hold a licence. Forgery is a serious criminal offence, and I commend the vigilance of SIA colleagues in detecting this fraud.
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 Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 that are mentioned above are as follows:
- Section 1 Forgery (making a false instrument)
- Section 3 Using a false instrument
Further information:
- The Security Industry Authority is the organisation responsible for regulating the private security industry in the United Kingdom, reporting to the Home Secretary under the terms of the Private Security Industry Act 2001. The SIAs main duties are the compulsory licensing of individuals undertaking designated activities and managing the voluntary Approved Contractor Scheme.
- For further information about the Security Industry Authority or to sign up for email updates visit: www.gov.uk/sia. The SIA is also on LinkedIn Facebook (Security Industry Authority) and Twi