Door supervisor who ignored SIA is fined

Jankowski’s failure to comply with his statutory duty was discovered during an ongoing investigation concerning the supply of unlicensed security operatives in the Newtownards/County Down area. For any licence-holder, keeping the SIA informed of their current address is part of their licence conditions.

Pete Easterbrook, of the SIA’s criminal investigation team, said, “The SIA requires licence holders to notify us of any change of address.  This is a statutory requirement, and we take it seriously.  The real aggravating factors in this case were that Mr Jankowski had changed address several times without telling us, and that he didn’t respond to our attempts to contact him.  The final straw that led to prosecution was that Mr Jankowski ignored our clear instructions, given at interview in a police station, for him to send in his correct details. Prosecution became our only option given his clear refusal to comply with the law.” 

The investigation found that Jankowski had failed to notify the SIA of several changes of address during the time that he had been licensed. The SIA made repeated attempts to engage with Jankowski, all of which were met with silence.

Eventually the SIA and PSNI visited Jankowski’s last known address, which was deserted and obviously not lived in.  Later that same day the investigators made contact with Jankowski, and he agreed to be interviewed at Musgrave Street police station, Belfast, on a voluntary basis.

Jankowski, who was accompanied by his solicitor, provided his current address, which was not known to the SIA.  He was reminded again that he must report this change in writing to the SIA as soon as practical. Jankowski, however, once again failed to provide any notification, which led to his prosecution.

The judge, deputy district Judge Gerard Trainor, dismissed defence claims that this was a matter of “technical semantics”; he said that the SIA are a statutory body, and that Mr Jankowski had a duty to notify them.

Jankowski’s door supervisor licence expired in March 2019. He has been given 20 weeks to make the full payment according to his sentence.