A man was been caught trying to work illegally as a security operative after a Cheltenham security firm spotted that his documents were fake.Samuel Chimize Ugorji of Gloucester was prosecuted on Wednesday 10 February at Gloucestershire Magistrates' Court on two counts of fraud and one count of infringement of the Private Security Industry Act. The prosecution was brought by the Security Industry Authority (SIA).In November 2019 Ugorji sought legal employment from Cheltenham-based Sterling Security. Ugorji presented Sterling Security with a counterfeit door supervisor's licence and a driver's licence in someone else's name.Sterling Security alerted the SIA, whose investigators discovered that while Ugorji was living in the UK legally, he had no right to work. He was using a counterfeit SIA licence card and a non-existent address as his identification.On 4 December 2019 Ugorji was invited to attend a job interview and induction at Sterling Security's offices. However, he was met by officers from Gloucester Constabulary and SIA investigators who arrested him on the premises.Further investigation revealed that Ugorji, who was carrying the counterfeit licence, had worked for another security company in Birmingham where he had used the same fake identity documents and licence. He had also been working illegally at several locations in West London between October and December 2019.Nathan Salmon, one of the SIA's Criminal Investigations Managers, said:This case is a good example of a security business getting in touch with us when they found a fake licence. We have been reminding companies to carry out physical checks on licences and not to accept copies at face value.Ugorji was sentenced on Wednesday to a three-month curfew between the hours of 7am and 11pm daily. He was also ordered to pay a contribution to court costs of £50 and a £90 victim surcharge. The magistrates took into account his previous good character and an early guilty plea.
Gloucestershire security business and the SIA work together in the UK
