A FORMER policeman with a string of commendations has vowed to go to jail rather than sack loyal staff in a furious row over his Birmingham security firm. Former constable John Day - who assisted the Birmingham pub bombings inquiry on the night of the horror in 1974 - says he will risk imprisonment to save long-serving security staff from the chop. Mr Day's company, Harbornebased Secure Areas Ltd, is under threat of possible closure in the wake of an investigation by the Security Industry Authority. The Government authority is targeting the Birmingham company over Mr Day's non-licensed employees - but the ex-PC says the SIA's failure to issue licences within six weeks has left him with no choice but to risk jail. "I have a choice - either I sack people and stay within the law or I break the law and keep people I have employed for considerable numbers of years," he said. "I am not for turning over this and I do not think that the authority is either. As far as I am concerned, they can lock me up - I am not going to put people on the dole. "When you have been a police officer for 17 years as I have, you have standards. I had 15 commendations in my career, I arrested 1,000 people - I know the law. I have got 25 blokes and our turnover is £500,000 a year. These are personal friends they are asking me to sack." Mr Day's problems arose in April last year when the Security Industry Authority introduced a new regime which required all guards to be licensed. But Mr Day, who has enlisted the support of Edgbaston MP Gisela Stuart, said delays in the issuing of licences - in some cases of up to six months - was the cause of his dispute. "The ironic thing is that I totally agree with this legislation. But some security companies have already closed over this and it could happen to us. "The SIA claims to turn licences round in six weeks but I have people who have been waiting for six months. There are eight who are unlicensed and they have all got applications in. "The authority has the right to serve a summons on me, go to the courts and get a search warrant, find information on my clients and finish off the business. I am totally appalled by what I regard as Gestapo-style tactics." Robert Buxton, spokesman for the Security Industry Authority, said: "We cannot confirm or deny whether anyone is under investigation. Our remit is public protection through increasing standards of the security industry. "The licensing process takes between six and eight weeks for a licence application." He said few licences would be held up for "more than a few months". Penalties for infringing the law include a £5,000 fine or six months' imprisonment. | 
