I documenti falsificati della guardia di sicurezza “hanno quasi chiuso l’aeroporto di Birmingham”

Birmingham Airport was almost “shut down” because a security guard forged documents to cover up his “ineptitude”.

Shoaib Iqbal, 40, failed to organise compulsory annual training for 38 airport security staff and then produced 85 forged certificates indicating they had completed it.

Birmingham Crown Court heard the Mitie contractor’s forgeries could have had “catastrophic consequences” for airport security and resulted in “the whole operation being shut down”.

Iqbal, from Saltley in Birmingham, admitting making a false instrument with intent and was handed a two-year suspended sentence on Friday.

The court heard Iqbal was working as a training instructor in December 2022 when security staff said they had not received their annual refresher training.

A subsequent audit by the airport found Iqbal’s records were incomplete. He claimed he had been “lazy in admin” and that the documents were complete but had not been filed yet.

He later contradicted this by telling a manager at Mitie that the incomplete records were caused by a printing delay.

Handwriting on the documents was then found to contain discrepancies and two Mitie workers said handwriting purporting to be theirs was not genuine.

Alison Slater, prosecuting for the Civil Aviation Authority, said a compliance officer declared the airport could not “safely function and the whole operation could be shut down”.

“There doesn’t appear to be a motive for personal gain, it was more about covering up ineptitude,” Ms Slater said.

“There was little or no obvious planning. No sophisticated planning.”

Iqbal resigned in February 2023 when he was told he was under criminal investigation.

Ben Brown, defending, said he had become “overloaded” by work and “kept digging to cover his tracks”.

Iqbal was ordered to carry out 10 days of rehabilitation activity and 200 hours of unpaid work as well as pay £750 in court costs.

Passing sentence, Recorder Kevin Hegarty KC said: “Fortunately no specific harm came about or can be identified.

“This was however an abuse of your position of trust to access the files and modify documents to make it look as though you had done your job.”