A security guard in Caterham came under fire after he told soldiers collecting money for war heroes to move on because they did not have permission.
The incident occurred on Saturday outside Morrisons in Church Walk when soldiers were collecting money for three charities — Help the Heroes, British Legion and the Guards Charity — before taking part in a charity rugby game at the Old Cats to mark 15 years since the military left Caterham barracks.
A security guard informed soldiers that they did not have the necessary permission to collect money from the public and that they would have to move on.
The soldiers agreed to move on but witnesses report that several members of the public, having coffee outside at Costa, expressed strong opinions to the security guard about allowing the soldiers to stay.
“The guys agreed to move on but several people in Costa kicked off at the security guard,” said Colour Sergeant Tim Heale of the Grenadier Guards.
“It didn’t bother us, we agreed to move on but the public were not happy at all. He (the security guard) was just being a bit over-officious.”
Heale said that the incident actually helped the soldiers raise more money. “We actually got more support because of it,” he said.
“The manager of Morrisons came out later and apologised.”
He added: “It was really great to see the public on our side — it means a huge amount to us. The whole thing got us even more support and didn’t affect what was a great day.”
Churchwalk centre manager Shelley Filipi said the security guard was protecting the public from bogus collectors.
“No charity group had contacted this office before Saturday 4 September to request space to collect.
“We understand that the collectors were approached by our onsite team but could not produce any paperwork from the Centre, Tandrige District Council or ID to prove they were a registered charity and were therefore asked to leave the site.
“The council department was closed on Saturday so checks could not be made by the centre team to ensure they were registered collectors.”
She added: “It is a shame that this event was not correctly organised. I have a friend who was seriously injured during the conflict and am already supporting Help for Heroes”.
Despite the incident, the soldiers raised £747.15 from the Caterham public and raised over £3,000 on the day as a whole.
And had the soldiers turned out to be impostors the story would have been “Lax security at Churchwalk allows conmen to fleece shoppers”
I understand there are protocols John but these guys were fully kitted out, the day had been advertised locally and they had a massive Help the Heroes bus with them.
A shame surely?
But if they did not have a street collection licence from the Council, they could have been bogus collectors, you hear about this all the time.
Anyone can hire uniforms, at least with checks in place you know your money is going to the right people.
I did not know about a Help for Heroes bus in the Valley, where was it?
Hi Summer, yeas a very good point. The guy was doing his job. The last thing we want is members of the public being conned.
It was a shame the paperwork wasn’t done but yes, can understand totally the reasons why they were asked to move on. Just one of those things.
Hopefully everyone will know from now on.
Thanks for your comments – very helpful.
The security guard deserves a medal. Despite public pressure he confronted a group of people who were collecting without a permit and asked them to move on. OK, he was only doing his job, the one he is paid for, protecting the public. He does not deserve a medal but he doesn’t deserve abuse and he doesn’t deserve this adverse publicity. It was polite and “good PR” for the manager to apologise afterwards. It would have been more appropriate for the collecters to apologise to the security guard.
Thanks John, I am going to take this up further to stress that he was only doing his job – a valid one in protecting the public from bogus collectors.
The fact is there was an incident but you are spot on – this guy does not deserve abuse for protecting people. He was put in a very difficult position.