A man who tried to use a cloned Security Industry Authority (SIA) licence to work in the security industry has been given a community order and must pay almost £4,000 in costs.
Luke Donnelly paid an unknown man £300 for a cloned security licence to work illegally, without proper training. Active Security Solutions Ltd, the company he applied to work for, spotted the deception while conducting routine checks.
The company alerted the SIA, who launched an investigation into Mr Donnelly.
Following the investigation, Mr Donnelly was charged and ordered to appear in court for his trial. He failed to appear at Dudley Magistrates’ Court and was found guilty in his absence on 13 December 2024.
A warrant was then issued for Mr Donnelly’s arrest. He was arrested and appeared at Walsall Magistrates’ Court on 9 January 2025. He was sentenced for using a cloned licence and for failing to surrender to bail. He was given a community order of 120 hours unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £3,903 prosecution costs and a victim surcharge of £114.
Mark Chapman, Criminal Investigations Manager for the SIA, said
When somebody works in the private security industry with a cloned licence they put the public, their colleagues and themselves at risk.
In this case, Mr Donnelly thought he could take a shortcut by avoiding the training necessary to safely de-escalate conflict and deal with dangerous situations. He claimed he believed the licence he bought was genuine. However, having held a genuine licence previously, he would have known that this was not the case and that he was breaking the law. This sentence serves as a warning to others who may try to circumvent the legal requirements to hold a valid licence and then avoid being held to account when caught.
I would like to thank Active Security Solutions Ltd for reporting this to us so that we could prosecute an individual trying to break the law.
Notes to editors
Licensed security operatives are subject to robust training requirements to help them protect the public. Deploying untrained and unvetted security operatives with fake or cloned licences puts the public at risk. Anyone suspected of breaking the law should be reported to the SIA.
If you suspect an individual of using a cloned licence you should report it.
By law, security operatives working under contract must hold and display a valid SIA licence. Learn how we enforce SIA regulation.
The offence relating to the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 that is mentioned above is
- Section 3 – knowingly using a false instrument
Further information
The Security Industry Authority is the regulator of the UK’s private security industry. Our purpose is to protect the public through effective regulation of the private security industry and working with partners to raise standards across the sector. We are responsible for licensing people who do certain jobs in the private security industry and for approving private security companies who wish to be part of the voluntary Approved Contractor Scheme.
For further information about the SIA or to sign up for email updates visit www.gov.uk/sia. We also post articles and updates on WordPress. The SIA is on LinkedIn, Facebook (Security Industry Authority) and X (@SIAuk).
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