Cloned SIA licenses led to unlicensed people working as hospital security during pandemic

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Nov 9 2022

Friday's sentence follows Ojugbele's guilty plea to fraud on Thursday 29 September.

This prosecution follows an investigation by the Security Industry Authority (SIA). A routine inspection by the in-house security manager of a Manchester city center public hospital in 2020 identified multiple cases of cloned SIA licenses. This meant that a number of unlicensed people were working as security staff at the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hospital's security manager referred a cloned license to the SIA along with incriminating email messages. The SIA's criminal investigation team identified Olarotimi Ojugbele at an address in Bolton as the holder of a cloned license.

The SIA invited Ojugbele to an interview-under-caution on 22 September 2021. Ojugbele attended the interview and he made a full admission to SIA investigators that he used two cloned SIA licenses. He said that he worked for two SIA approved contractors on at least 70 occasions between 8 October 2020 and 31 March 2021. The SIA is actively investigating Ojugbele's employers.

Ojugbele had no right to work in the UK. He was arrested by Home Office immigration officials in October 2021 and he was detained at a Middlesex immigration center.

Nicola Bolton, one of the SIA's criminal investigation managers, said:

Mr Ojugbele was prosecuted for using someone else's SIA licence, enabling him to work illegally on 70 occasions as a security operative in a hospital. The licensing regime is there to protect the public. This is particularly important in an establishment such as a hospital where people can be at their most vulnerable. I would like to thank the hospital's security who have been instrumental in this prosecution."

A cloned license is a license that is a copy of a genuine license. The SIA is reminding employers to check carefully for cloned licenses using ultra-violet light technology.