HABC has withdrawn the physical intervention unit that applicants took to gain the Level 2 Award in Door Supervision, making the qualification invalid.

In total, 1,001 certificates that were awarded to candidates registered with the two centres have been withdrawn. Of these qualifications, 654 had been used to obtain an SIA licence. The SIA has written to licence holders to explain that they have a 28 day period to gain a valid qualification or their licence will be revoked.

Dave Humphries, Director Compliance, Intelligence and Communication said:

“The SIA, our awarding organisation partners and the qualifications regulator Ofqual take malpractice issues around training very seriously. These allegations came to light earlier this year that suggested that training providers Get Licensed and ALN were involved in malpractice between October 2010 and May 2011.
Whilst training malpractice is not endemic, this recent investigation demonstrates that we will not allow people to think that they can get away with it.”

Jason Sprenger, HABC Chief Executive said:

“HABC received allegations of malpractice within ALN, AAB Training and Get Licensed. Upon receipt of the allegations, we carried out a full and thorough investigation in partnership with the SIA. This included analysis of test papers and interviews with tutors and learners. We found substantiated evidence of malpractice and consequently withdrew more than 1,000 HABC Level 2 Awards in Door Supervision across all three organisations.
HABC is firmly committed to ensuring the integrity of our qualifications is maintained at all times and takes any abuse very seriously. We will not hesitate to take immediate and proportionate action against any centre found to be actively participating in malpractice.”

HABC has set up a helpline for the affected learners. The telephone number is01302 363 154. SIA licence holders must correspond with the SIA; if they do not their licence may be revoked.