(file image) Photo: Jae Park/ Unsplash
A newly certified security guard has been disqualified from working in the industry after she called police and falsely reported a man was shooting at people in a supermarket.
Police asked for Leah Grayling's certificate of approval to work as a security guard to be cancelled due to recent convictions for using a phone for fictitious purposes, as well as disorderly behaviour likely to cause violence and speaking threateningly.
A decision from the Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority said Grayling, who recently completed security training, had an extensive history of making hoax calls to police or other emergency services.
When she was banned from phoning police, she would get friends to ring, or call anonymously from a payphone.
The calls ranged from reporting fictitious street fights to saying there was a shooter at a supermarket. She would also fictitiously report that she intended to self-harm.
The decision said when police or other emergency services arrived, Grayling would sometimes laugh and treat it as a joke, or at other times become aggressive towards police or others. They said the calls wasted valuable police time and resources.
Police considered Grayling's behaviour demonstrated she was not mature enough to handle the responsibility of working in security.
While Grayling neither attended the hearing nor applied for waiver of the grounds for disqualification, her initial response to the police complaint stated she was a "polite and caring person", and she promised not to act in the way that resulted in the charges she was facing while working on the job as a security guard.
Grayling's supervisor also supported her and said she had been one of the "best students" in her practical work. It appeared Grayling only got into trouble when "she was bored and had time on her hands".
However, the decision noted there had been alleged offending while she was completing her security training.
Licensing authority head Trish McConnell said Grayling's convictions were grounds for disqualification; a mandatory ground for the cancellation of her certificate of approval.
"Ms Grayling needs to address the causes of her offending and stop making time-wasting and false calls to emergency services if she wants to work in security again," McConnell said.
"If she addresses the causes of her offending and goes for 18 months without coming to police attention for making hoax calls or other anti-social and attention-seeking behaviour, Ms Grayling can reapply for a certificate of approval."
Grayling's certificate of approval was cancelled, and she was ordered to return her security ID to the licensing authority within seven days.
This story was originally published in the New Zealand Herald.