Weston-Super-Mare woman convicted of making a fraudulent claim

On 18 December 2020, Lisa Pearce of Weston-Super-Mare pleaded guilty to fraud at Bristol Crown Court; Pearce’s sentence was 180-hours of unpaid work which must be completed within two years. Pearce was prosecuted by the Security Industry Authority (SIA).

Pearce was formerly an SIA licensed Door Supervisor and her licence expired on 7 August 2018.

She applied for a new licence on 3 February 2019 and there was a delay in processing Pearce’s licence application.

Pearce received her licence on 21 August 2019 and the SIA returned her application fee and advised her about the compensation for a loss of earnings. Pearce made a claim against the SIA for the loss of earnings during the period. Applicants have the right to seek compensation if there is a delay to their application. The SIA will consider a request for compensation for loss of earnings, if a claim is justified and legitimate.

The SIA requested Pearce to submit evidence of the loss of earnings by proving her historic earnings as a security operative. The documents Pearce submitted aroused the SIA’s suspicions, it sought to verify the documents with her employer but was unable to.

Pearce submitted documents and payslips for the following amounts:

• November 2018 – £1,379.50
• December 2018 – £1,379.50
• January 2019 – £1,286.50

On 30 August 2019 Pearce was interviewed under caution and admitted that she had downloaded template payslips from the internet and completed them to use as an illustration and admitted creating fraudulent articles.

Nathan Salmon, from the SIA’s Criminal Investigations team, said:

Lisa Pearce sought to defraud the SIA by providing false documents. Licensees have a right to compensation if there is a case, but if there is an attempt to defraud, then the SIA will prosecute. Pearce tried to gain financially from her loss of earnings claim by supplying fraudulent wage slips. Pearce had her door supervisor’s licence suspended by the SIA pending the outcome of the prosecution. She has now lost that licence due to her criminal record.

During the prosecution, His Honour Julian Lambert, said in his sentencing remarks:

Pearce’s decision to make the false claim for loss of earnings to the SIA was a stupid one. Her lies have caught up with her and now she must pay the price. That price is the loss of a job that she loved and the means to support herself.

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 offence mentioned in the above news release is: Fraud Act 2006: Section 7 (Making or supplying articles for use in frauds)

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. Our 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 visit www.gov.uk/sia. The SIA is also on Facebook (Security Industry Authority) and Twitter (SIAuk).