Businessman to repay almost £4,000 for security staff breach
A Shropshire businessman who breached security staff rules has been ordered to pay almost £4,000 in ill-gotten gains.
Matthew Davies operated Craven Arms-based Showtime Security which supplied unqualified security guards to events and businesses including the V-Dubs festival over an 18-month period up to September 2016.
He was jailed for 12 months in July 2018 for breaking Security Industry Authority(SIA) rules on one contract and for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
At a hearing brought under the Proceeds of Crime Act, Davies was ordered to repay £3,608.21.
Mr Robert Fitt, prosecuting, told Shrewsbury Crown Court: "There is an agreed position now for confiscation. The benefit figure is £3,608.21. that amount can be paid within the usual three months I understand.
Ban
"He will also be disqualified from being a company director today."
The court heard that Davies, 44, had got a job and was "adopting and following all regulations".
Judge Peter Barrie warned Davies, of Woodyard Lane, in Quatt near Bridgnorth, that if he did not pay up the result would be a two-month prison term in default of the sum.
He also banned him from acting as a company director for two years.
One of incidents involved a man supplied by his company to the Shropshire Housing Group to prevent vandalism during a building project on Shrewsbury's Radbrook Campus not having the SIA licence needed to work as a security guard in July 2016. During the run up to his trial Davies made several attempts to stop Thomas Ashton of Shropshire Housing Group testifying against him.
He warned that Mr Ashton would face a 'hard time' in the witness box and might be accused of perjury over alleged conflicts in his evidence.
Davies was cleared of a total of six charges after arguing that his workers were engaged in roles that did not require the licence.
His former partner, Maria Francis, 30, admitted seven breaches of SIA rules during which unqualified security guards were supplied at the 2015 V-Dubs in the Valley near Bridgnorth, Tuffins Supermarket in Craven Arms and the young adults shelter Ludlow Foyer.
She was given a two-year condition discharge because she played a minor role. And she will be subject to a separate proceeds of crime hearing later this month.
