PRIVATE UK security firm G4S has sacked two members of staff after the firm tagged a man’s false leg, allowing him to remove it and flout a court-imposed curfew.
Christopher Lowcock (29), fooled staff by wrapping a prosthetic leg in a bandage when the tag was attached at his home in Rochdale, in the north west of England. He was then able to remove the limb and break a curfew imposed for offences involving drugs, driving and a weapon.
In a statement, the ministry of justice for England and Wales, said procedures “were clearly not followed in this case and G4S have taken action against the staff involved. Two thousand offenders are tagged every week and incidents like this are very rare,” a spokesman added.
A spokeswoman for the company said it placed electronic tags on “70,000 subjects a year on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. Given the critical nature of this service we have very strict procedures in place which all of our staff must follow. In this individual’s case two employees failed to adhere to the correct procedures. Had they done so, they would have identified his prosthetic leg.”
The two staff involved had committed a serious disciplinary offence and had been dismissed, she said. G4S revealed one of the employees who had gone to check on the monitoring equipment at Lowcock’s home was sacked for failing to realise he had fooled them.
The ministry said contractors were expected to adhere to “the highest standards of professionalism” and strict guidelines had to be followed when tagging offenders. – (Guardian service)