McCaw wedding guard unlicensed
A man who robbed six Canterbury pubs at gunpoint helped provide security at Richie McCaw’s wedding but did not have a licence, telling his employer his permit was in the post.
Doug Roake on Monday pleaded guilty to a string of armed robberies in March and April, netting him more than $100,000, and a home invasion where he shot two women. Before he embarked on his crime spree he worked for several security firms.
The Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority (PSPLA) register shows Roake was granted a temporary permit in June 2015. It expired three months later.
In the meantime, he applied for three classes of permanent licence: crowd controller, personal guard and property guard, which all require training. All three were declined. Roake worked for at least two security firms in the last two years: October Protection Group in Christchurch and Auckland-based P4G. The latter provided security at the tightly-protected wedding of former All Black captain Richie McCaw and hockey star Gemma McCaw (nee Flynn) in Wanaka in January. Roake was part of the detail and was photographed by media guarding access to the wedding venue, the Olive Grove.
By law anyone who works as a security guard without a licence can be fined up to $40,000. Any company that employs such a person can be fined $20,000.
P4G managing director Aaron Colthurst said Roake applied for a casual employment with the company on January 3. He claimed to have a valid licence, but said he had been unable to pick it up from the post office.
‘‘He was assigned some nonsecurity tasks until proof of his qualification was received,’’ Colthurst said.
‘‘His employment was terminated a month later at which point he had still failed to produce such a qualification.’’
October Protection Group said Roake had not worked for them for two years.
The PSPLA is administered by the Ministry of Justice. Applicants are granted a temporary permit if they pass a criminal history check and agree to undertake training. A ministry spokesman said Roake’s three permanent licence applications were declined because he did not complete the training.
A person, or a company that employs a person, without a licence can be investigated by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), but only if a complaint is made. DIA confirmed no complaint was made about Roake. Since 2015 it had conducted 17 investigations into the licensing of crowd controllers, security guards and property guards. Five found a breach, seven found no breach and five were ongoing.
Roake, 23, had a clean criminal record before the robberies. He worked several jobs as a labourer around Christchurch. One former employer, who did not want to be named, said he was a nice guy, but ‘‘everyone thought he was strange’’.