Security boss told to pay £26,000 after failing to guard historic hall
A security company boss who was paid to guard an historic Black Country hall has been told to pay more than £26,000 after repeatedly failing to check the building.
Simon Jones, from Sedgley, must pay more than £15,000 in court costs and almost £11,000 to Dudley Council after fraudulently taking more than £600 a week from the local authority.
His company S & K Security won a tender in 2010 to provide security services at Wollescote Hall in Stevens Park, Wollescote.
The company should have provided a security guard on-site between 5pm and midnight seven days a week, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Invoices were submitted by company, which was also responsible for opening up the building at 7am on weekdays, for £648 per week to the council.
But an investigation was launched between March 2016 and July 2017 into when the alarms on the building were activated and deactivated.
And Dudley Council's corporate fraud manager found there were "numerous occasions" when no security guard was present at Wollescote Hall when there should have been.
The 46-year-old pocketed £10,486 he wasn't entitled to over the 14-month period and had been due to stand trial, having denied the charge, but changed his plea to guilty before a jury was sworn in to try the case.
Jones, of Downfield Drive, Sedgley, was sentenced to 12 months in jail for fraud which was suspended for two years at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday.
He has three years to pay the full court costs of £15,688.35 and 12 months to pay the £10,946.18 owed to Dudley Council.
Councillor Steve Clark, cabinet member for finance and legal services, said: "This was not a case of a company employee leaving early every now and then, or turning up late.
"Over a 475 day period, 362 shifts were only partly covered, and 45 shifts were not covered at all.
"That is 45 days when taxpayers’ money was used to pay for services to protect one of the borough’s most historic buildings, when no-one even bothered to set foot in the hall to check on it.
"That is dishonest behaviour, and we welcome the sentence of the court in this case as well as the fact we were awarded the full costs and compensation we asked for."