The security licensing directorate of the NSW Police Force is investigating one of the private security firms that was at the centre of Victoria’s hotel quarantine fiasco.
Unified Security is owned by David Millward and Luigi Trunzo, who have been linked to a number of companies that have collapsed. The police investigation could potentially lead to the loss of the firm’s master security licence:
From The Australian:
Mr Millward and Mr Trunzo have been linked to at least 41 different corporate entities over the years. Mr Trunzo served as director of one business that traded as Unified before changing its name to USS Risk, changing its board, and collapsing into insolvency owing $4.5m.
When it collapsed in 2016, the business owed $4.5m to the Office of State Revenue, now known as Revenue NSW, in payroll tax unpaid since 2009.
Mr Trunzo was director from 2007 until 2015…
Despite the repeated failures of businesses connected to Mr Millward and Mr Trunzo, companies linked to the two men continue to garner contracts…
In Melbourne, one guard at Rydges – who tested positive to the coronavirus — reported being instructed to stash used gloves and masks so the equipment could be reused. The guard, known as Security 16, said he was recruited via WhatsApp to work for a Unified subcontractor…
The guard also made four food deliveries while awaiting test results, telling the inquiry he “was getting bored at my house” while waiting.
Recall that Unified Security – a tiny security firm of only 89 permanent employees that wasn’t even on the Victorian Government’s preferred supplier list – was awarded a contract worth $30 million to guard Melbourne’s quarantine hotels.
Security guards employed by Unified were largely responsible for seeding Victoria’s damaging virus second wave:
Unified won the bulk of hotel quarantine work in Melbourne, earning more than $30 million in less than four months. But guards working for the company were infected with COVID-19 in the Rydges on Swanston, which has been linked to at least 90 per cent of cases in Victoria’s second coronavirus wave.
Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) should also investigate this contract.
