Chubb contract in jeopardy

The security firm being investigated following the murder of Liam Ashley could lose its contract - or at the very least face severe financial penalties - over the teenager's death.

Chubb NZ and the Corrections Department were revealing little yesterday about the details of the contract to provide prisoner escort and courtroom custodial services, but a well-placed source told the Herald on Sunday the contract could be in jeopardy. A termination clause for serious breaches of contract appears in other Chubb contracts with Corrections, such as its home detention agreement.

Neither organisation would speculate on what constituted a serious breach of contract.

Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor said yesterday he did not want to prejudge Chubb's contractual obligations, but conceded that one death was one too many.

"It is a shocking tragedy and one that should never have occurred inside a prison or outside a prison," he said.

Departing Chubb general manager John Cleary refused to discuss the contract with Corrections, or whether it was in danger of being cancelled.

However, he confirmed the two guards who were in the van when Liam was fatally bashed had returned to work after receiving counselling.

Liam was assaulted just over a week ago while being transported from the North Shore District Court to the Auckland Central Remand Centre. He died in hospital the next day. A 25-year-old Onehunga man has been charged with his murder.

The 17-year-old had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning difficulties and had been remanded in custody after his parents turned to the justice system in a last-ditch bid to bring their son into line.

Now five separate inquiries have been launched into Liam's death, while O'Connor has again reiterated that adults and offenders aged under 20 must be separated in prison vans.

O'Connor said last week that the contract with Chubb clearly stated that young offenders be separated from adult offenders. He was not prepared to speculate why that had not happened, but he did say that since 1998, around 220,000 prisoners had been escorted with, until now, no deaths.

Harmeet Singh, a witness to the fatal prison van beating, last week testified in court that the teenager was bleeding from the eyes, ears, nose and head when he fell into the arms of the security guard who unlocked the rear door.

Chubb has been operating in New Zealand since 1952. It employs around 1300 people.

It has held the prison escort contract for the Auckland region since 1998, and has 48 staff dedicated to the service. It is not involved with this type of work anywhere else in the country, but does hold the $2.2 million-a-year home detention contract for electronically monitoring offenders.

Neither Corrections nor Chubb would confirm the value of the prison escort contract or whether performance bonuses were paid. Corrections confirmed that it reviewed Chubb's performance monthly, but would not say what indicators it used.

It would also not confirm how many security breaches involving Chubb or how many incidents of violence in the rear of prison vans there had been in the past 12 months. All it would reveal was that prison escorts had at least six months' training.

Corrections was more forthcoming over its five-year home detention contract with Chubb, saying that contract was first awarded in 1999 and then renewed in 2004 following a tendering process.

Own security not always watertight

Chubb NZ Ltd is certainly no stranger to controversy.

The spotlight is again on the security company after the death of 17-year-old Liam Ashley, with five separate investigations underway to determine how the system failed the North Shore teenager.

Before Liam's death, its most high-profile catastrophe was in 2003 when a Chubb guard assigned to watch one of the country's worst serial paedophiles stood by while he assaulted a 26-year-old intellectually handicapped girl.

Lloyd McIntosh was released from Manawatu Prison in 2003, but was under 24-hour, seven-day a week supervision by Chubb at his Palmerston North home to minimise the potential risk of his offending.

But despite the strict supervision order, McIntosh somehow managed to lure the woman into his bedroom and then assault her, while a Chubb guard stood outside the door making noises at the window to try to stop the attack.

Other high-profile incidents include an embarrassing security breach in 2001 with the theft of electronic home detention anklets from a Chubb security vehicle in Christchurch.

That same year it was revealed a group of former Chubb security guards were involved in the robbery of $1 million from an armoured van in Wellington.

And in 2005 Chubb employee Neil Barton admitted his involvement in the elaborate $249,000 ram-raid of Chubb Protective Services in Nelson.