The head of global security firm G4S has unexpectedly quit, just months after being heavily criticised for the handling of security at last year’s Olympic Games
Nick Buckles, who admitted the London 2012 contract had been a ‘humiliating shambles, is to stand down from his £1.2million-a-year role as chief executive.
He clung on to his job in the immediate aftermath of the Olympics debacle but the firm’s reputation suffered badly and in recent weeks poor trading caused shares to slump by more than 13 per cent in one day.
Shares in the troubled firm rose three per cent today following the announcement that Mr Buckles is leaving.
With just weeks before the London Olympics opened in July last year, G4S admitted it would not be able to provide the thousands of guards it had promised.
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G4S: A HISTORY OF BLUNDERSThe UK-based security firm traces its roots back to a guarding company founded in Denmark in 1901.
G4S was formed when Group 4 merged with Securicor in 2004. The company has a long record of blunders including:
In 1993 Group 4 became the first private company to run prisoner escort services,m and lost seven inmates in three weeks
A year later a hunger striker escaped from Campsfield House detention centre, guarded by Group 4
In 1997 it emerged the firm had transferred a prisoner between two vans on a petrol station forecourt
Three prisoners escaped from Peterborough Crown Court in 2001
In 2011, G4S staff lost a set of cell keys just days after taking over Birmingham Prison Workers put an electronic tag on criminal Christopher Lowcock's artificial limb
In 2012 the firm failed to train enough guards for the London Games which meant 3,500 soldiers had to be recalled from leave
In March this year a G4S guard at Heathrow ordered Royal Navy engineer Nicky Howse to change out of her uniform before flying to the US because it was 'offensive'
In the wake of the debacle MPs called on the government to think again before awarding more lucrative contracts to the firm.
But this month Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers announced it would provide security guarding the world’s most powerful men and women at next month’s G8 summit at Lough Erne.
Mr Buckles is to retire from the company and will be replaced on June 1 by Ashley Almanza, who has held senior roles at oil and gas group BG Group.
G4S was left nursing losses of £88 million after it failed to provide all of its 10,400 contracted employees for the Olympics last year.
The fiasco wiped millions of the value of the firm, which has an annual turnover of some £7.5billion.
Chief operating officer David Taylor-Smith and Ian Horseman Sewell, who was head of global events, carried the can for the fiasco, but Mr Buckles stayed in his post.
G4S disappointed investors by revealing that weak European markets and pricing pressure on its cash transportation arm in the UK and Ireland had squeezed margins.
Mr Buckles will walk away with his contractual entitlement to a year's salary of £830,000 and a pension allowance of £332,000.
G4S is the largest employer on the London Stock Exchange with more than 620,000 staff worldwide.
Chairman John Connolly said: ‘Nick Buckles made a massive contribution to the group over a 28-year career.
‘As chief executive he led G4S in the creation of significant shareholder value following the merger of Securicor and Group 4 Falck - building the world's leading security company.’
Mr Buckles was appointed chief executive of Securicor in 2002 before taking the top role in the newly created G4S business.
The company provides security at 14 UK airports and four ports, and also runs six prisons, four children's homes and two immigration centres, and tags 14,000 offenders.
The Government had to draft in additional security helpers from the Armed Forces after G4S failed to fulfill its contract for the Olympic GamesMr Buckles was grilled by MPs over the Olympics contract last year
It has also made major in-roads in to carrying out police work, providing security at 500 police stations and 30 custody suites.
And last month it emerged staff from the company were being hired by police forces to run murder and rape inquiries.
Senior investigators from the firm – ridiculed for the Olympics security fiasco – are even helping overworked officers on the Jimmy Savile sex abuse case.
Retired detectives are earning more than £60,000 a year in their new roles, on top of lucrative gold-plated public sector pensions.
