The Proceeds of Crime Order must be paid within three months otherwise its director, Robert Leonard Gaze, faces a 14-day jail sentence.

The court also fined ALG Security Ltd £900 and ordered it to pay £200 court costs and a victim surcharge of £90. Robert Gaze was fined £675 and ordered to pay £200 court costs and a victim surcharge £67. The order follows the prosecution of ALG Security Services Ltd and its director Robert Leonard Gaze who pleaded guilty at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court on 13 August 2021 to a series of offences under the Private Security Industry Act. The prosecution was brought by the Security Industry Authority (SIA).

ALG Security Services applied to be accredited under the SIA’s Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) during the pandemic. When lockdown ended, an SIA regional investigator visited a Rhyl construction site on 22 October 2020 as part of preliminary investigations. During routine checks the investigator identified three unlicensed security guards from the signing-in book. The SIA stopped ALG’s ACS application and began a criminal investigation.

The SIA interviewed the three unlicensed individuals during March 2021, which revealed several anomalies.

On 17 March 2021 the director of ALG Security Services Ltd, Robert Leonard Gaze was interviewed by SIA investigators, stating he took people at their word as being licensed.

During the interview Gaze revealed ALG Security Ltd had supplied security services to Workerbee (a production company working on a Channel 4 production “The Bridge” in Llyn Brenig) between June and September 2020. This was a revelation as ALG had failed to mention this when the SIA requested information previously. Withholding information from the SIA is an offence.

During the interview ALG declared that it had a number of self-employed staff. However, the independent assessment undertaken for their application to the SIA’s Approved Contractor Scheme revealed that all the staff were in fact employees of the company.

Robert Leonard Gaze resigned his directorship of ALG Security Ltd on 09 December 2021.

The prosecution of ALG Security and Gaze follows earlier prosecutions of the three unlicensed people: Carter, Williams and Hawksey.

Jonathan Carter of Llandudno revealed that he was in the process of getting a licence and he had also worked at the Workabee site. It was confirmed that Carter was engaged by ALG on a self-employed basis. The SIA prosecuted Carter on 22 June 2021 after he pleaded guilty to working unlicensed. The court fined him £200. He was also required to pay £200 court costs and a £34 victim surcharge.

Another guard, Tomos Williams of Llandudno Junction, said he worked at the Rhyl construction site but in a training capacity for ALG Security Services Ltd. ALG said that Williams had given a licence number, but that the company had not done any due diligence on Williams. ALG engaged him on a self-employed basis. Williams pleaded guilty at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court on 22 June 2021 to working unlicensed. The court subsequently fined him £200, along with a victim surcharge of £34.

Christopher Hawksey claimed that he worked for ALG Security in return for lodgings. He confirmed that he worked with one of the directors of ALG Security at the site. He pleaded not guilty to working as an unlicensed guard but subsequently changed his plea on 13 August 2021. He was fined £162 and ordered to pay court costs of £85 plus a victim surcharge of £34.

Mark Chapman, SIA Criminal Investigations Manager, said:

ALG Security and its director failed to meet the criteria to become an SIA approved contractor. The recruitment and deployment of unlicensed security personnel does not fit the criteria for a reputable business supplying security. ALG’s criminality put the public at risk and on 13 May the business and its director were sanctioned by the court, incurring a significant penalty. Their actions skewed the market for legitimate businesses during a difficult operating time, not to mention the risk they posed to the public by being unlicensed. The licensing regime is there to protect everyone. Messrs Gaze, Carter, Williams and Hawksey now all have criminal records.

Notes to editors:

• The offences relating to the Private Security Industry Act (2001) that are mentioned above are as follows:

  • ALG Security Ltd: Section 5 – Supply of unlicensed operatives

  • Robert Gaze: Section 5 (via Section 23) – Supply of unlicensed operatives; Section 23 – consent, connivance or neglect of directors for employing unlicensed guards; Section 19 – failure to provide information relating to an investigation

  • Jonathan Carter: Section 3 – working without a licence

  • Tomos Williams: Section 3 – working without a licence

  • Christopher Hawksey: Section 3 – working without a licence

• The Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) is voluntary and exists to raise performance standards. To be an approved contractor a business needs to meet a sector-specific approval based on a relevant set of qualifying criteria that is independently assessed.

• The Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) sets out the legislative scheme for the recovery of criminal assets with criminal confiscation being the most commonly used power. Confiscation occurs after a conviction has taken place.

• If a person has a POCA Order against them they have to pay it regardless if they serve a jail sentence.

• By law, security operatives working under contract must hold and display a valid SIA licence. Information about SIA enforcement and penalties can be found on the website.

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).

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is warning tax credits customers to be aware of scams and fraudsters who imitate the department in an attempt to steal their personal information or money.

About 2.1 million tax credits customers are expected to renew their annual claims by 31 July 2022 and could be more susceptible to the tactics used by criminals who mimic government messages to make them appear authentic.

In the 12 months to April 2022, HMRC responded to nearly 277,000 referrals of suspicious contact received from the public. Fraudsters use phone calls, text messages and emails to try and dupe individuals – often trying to rush them to make decisions. HMRC will not ring anyone out of the blue threatening arrest – only criminals do that.

Typical scam examples include:

• phone calls threatening arrest if people don’t immediately pay fictitious tax owed. Sometimes they claim that the victim’s National Insurance number has been used fraudulently
• emails or texts offering spurious tax rebates, bogus COVID-19 grants or claiming that a direct debit payment has failed

Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said:

We’re urging all of our customers to be really careful if they are contacted out of the blue by someone asking for money or bank details.

There are a lot of scams out there where fraudsters are calling, texting or emailing customers claiming to be from HMRC. If you have any doubts, we suggest you don’t reply directly, and contact us straight away. Search GOV.UK for our ‘scams checklist’ and to find out ‘how to report tax scams’.

HMRC does not charge tax credits customers to renew their annual claims and is also urging them to be alert to misleading websites or adverts designed to make them pay for government services that should be free, often charging for a connection to HMRC phone helplines.

Renewing online is quick and easy. Customers can log into GOV.UK to check the progress of their renewal, be reassured it is being processed and know when they will hear back from HMRC. Customers choosing to use the HMRC app on their smartphone can:

• renew their tax credits
• update changes to their claim
• check their tax credits payments schedule, and
• find out how much they have earned for the year

HMRC has released a video to explain how tax credits customers can use the HMRC app to view, manage and update their details.

How do I use the HMRC app to manage my tax credits?

If there is a change in a customer’s circumstances that could affect their tax credits claims, they must report the changes to HMRC. Circumstances that could affect tax credits payments include changes to:

• living arrangements
• childcare
• working hours, or
• income (increase or decrease)

Tax credits are ending and will be replaced by Universal Credit by the end of 2024. Many customers who move from tax credits to Universal Credit could be financially better off and can use an independent benefits calculator to check. If customers choose to apply sooner, it is important to get independent advice beforehand as they will not be able to go back to tax credits or any other benefits that Universal Credit replaces.

Find out more about renewing tax credits claims.

Customers can download the HMRC app for free from their smartphone app store.

Customers should remain vigilant about protecting their HMRC login details. They should not share their Government Gateway user ID and password with anyone else.

Handing over sensitive personal information, even inadvertently, puts individuals at risk. Someone using someone else’s Government Gateway account could steal from both the account owner and HMRC and leave customers having to pay back the full value of any fraudulent repayment claim made on their behalf.

In the last year (12-month rolling period: May 2021 to April 2022) HMRC has:

• responded to 276,930 referrals of suspicious contact from the public. Of these, 115,326 offered bogus tax rebates
• worked with the telecoms industry and Ofcom to remove 99 phone numbers being used to commit HMRC-related phone scams
• responded to 95,921 reports of phone scams in total, 78% down on the previous year. In April 2020 we received reports of only 425 phone scams. In April 2022 this had risen to 5,024
• reported 6,025 malicious web pages for takedown
• detected 463 COVID-19-related financial scams since March 2020, most by text message
• asked Internet Service Providers to take down 443 COVID-19-related scam web pages.