Lucia Howland – SIA Regional Investigation Manager and Tactical Events Lead highlights SIA activity during the Parklife Festival in Manchester this year.
The weekend of 11/12 June saw the Parklife Festival return to Heaton Park in Manchester with an extensive array of acts and an 80,000 capacity. A large private security presence helped to deliver a safe event and ensure public protection. As part of routine compliance and enforcement work, SIA investigators engaged extensively in advance with the event organisers, partner agencies and security companies involved as well as being present during the festival to undertake compliance-related activity.
Our approach at the festival, which was agreed in advance, was to focus on the identification and prevention of any attempted use of counterfeit SIA licences, alongside ensuring general compliance with SIA rules. Counterfeit licences show genuine SIA licence number and name details and show up as “active” on the SIA’s Public Register of Licence Holders. However, the photo on the licence is of the fraudulent holder rather than the genuine applicant.
On the weekend itself, four SIA investigators attended Parklife with assistance from Greater Manchester Police. In total we checked over 650 SIA licences, mostly at the accreditation stage prior to deployment. Whilst the vast majority of the SIA licences we checked were genuine, we found one that was a counterfeit. Whilst the name and SIA licence number showed as “active” on the SIA Register, the photo on the licence did not match with SIA records. The counterfeit licence was seized immediately and the individual in question was arrested by Greater Manchester Police officers for suspected fraud and immigration offences. Related enquires and follow-up work are underway.
The protection of the public at high-profile festivals is paramount and we were pleased that the majority of those deployed were correctly licensed. Our inspection activity was vital to mitigate against the risk of individuals trying to work in the private security industry using counterfeit licences. Festival goers need the assurance that they will be safe when they are out enjoying themselves.
Security Industry Authority Blog 