Tiny Deane's final penalty over misconduct relating to his security business, Tigers Express Security Limited, has been issued. Photo / Andrew Warner
Tiny Deane's final penalty over misconduct relating to his security business, Tigers Express Security Limited, has been issued. Photo / Andrew Warner
Rotorua emergency housing figure Raymond (Tiny) Deane and his security business have been fined $1750 after being found guilty of misconduct.
The penalty was issued by the Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority and the decision was released publicly today.
It followed the authority’s June finding last year that Deane’s “failures” were sufficient to show he was “not suitable to be the managing director and sole officer of a security company”.
Deane is chief executive officer of Visions of a Helping Hand, which has social service contracts with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to run emergency housing motels in Rotorua. He was also the sole director of Tigers Express Security Limited - a company that employed up to 50 security guards who worked at the motels.
June’s decision found Deane was trading under the name of Tiger Security without approval and allowed security guards to work without their certificate of approval, including for months after their certificates were declined.
Deane was also found to have run a security business without a licence and wrongly advised Visions it could “rely on Tigers Express’s security licence to run a security business”.
Tiny Deane has been fined for misconduct. Photo / Andrew Warner
Additionally, he failed to follow the authority’s and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s guidelines for running security companies or providing security to emergency housing providers.
The authority gave Deane time to get out of the security business. After several deadline extensions, the sale of the business to a “reputable and established security licence holder” was settled this month.
The decision noted Tiger Express Security Limited’s company shares were not part of the sale and Deane remains the sole director and shareholder of that company. However, it no longer owns or runs the security business formerly operated as Tigers Express Security.
The decision, signed by authority head Trish McConnell, said that while individually Deane’s breaches might not be at the more serious end, combined they established Deane was no longer suitable to be the sole officer of a security company.
She noted some of the breaches amounted to offences for which fines of up to $40,000 could be imposed upon conviction.
McConnell said she accepted Deane first got involved in emergency housing with good intentions and did his best for those in need who required his support. She also accepted his work was expanding exponentially in 2021 and it would have been “extremely difficult to keep up”.
She said it was “incomprehensible” given the pressures Deane was under with the full-time job of being the chief executive of Visions that he took on another full-time role.
“It is also difficult to understand why Visions agreed for him to do this, particularly as the HUD contract specifically required a separation between the security work and the emergency housing and social work services.”
She said Deane failed to understand and comply with his responsibilities as a security business owner and manager.
“He either did not read or failed to comprehend the clear advice and guidelines with which he was provided.”
She said there was no evidence he “consistently sought advice and guidance” from the agencies he believed to be experts, as he claimed.
“For example, there is no evidence, or record of, any written or telephone communications with the PSPLA other than one email before the licence application was filed. Mr Deane also provided no evidence of the legal advice he claimed to be following. If he was following such advice, it was plainly wrong.”
He also failed to follow “very clear guidelines for security operators” provided by the ministry throughout 2021.
She said those guidelines aligned with the authority’s so she did not accept Deane’s initial explanation they were confusing.
“I also do not accept his subsequent explanation that he thought they were a draft only and did not need to be followed.”
It was a condition of the ministry’s contract that he keep security work separate from the social services and emergency housing services.
“When these requirements came into force the security business continued to be run through Visions rather than the security licence holder. Even once they were separated out, the necessary separation could not be achieved with the same person being chief executive of Visions and managing director of the security company.”
McConnell said Deane demonstrated a “lack of business acumen” when trying to sell or appoint independent managers for the security business.
While some of the issues may have been a result of poor advice, Deane failed to understand the clear guidelines.
She concluded Deane’s failures and his misconduct were sufficient to establish that he was not suitable to be the managing director and sole officer of a security company and cancelled his company licence. He had advised the authority he did not intend to return to the security industry.
Despite this, she allowed him to keep his certificate of approval as a security guard on the condition he was not to work in a management role for a security company and could only work in security if he was employed by an established licence holder.
A Tigers Express Security Limited vehicle. Photo / Andrew Warner
“I also consider a fine towards the upper limit is appropriate given the fact that Mr Deane no longer requires a licence. In addition, he was given significant extensions to the timetable to sell his business and profited from the business during that time.”
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
