This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/16/manchester-united-fans-should-be-compensated-for-bomb-scare-says-mp

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Manchester United fans should be compensated for 'bomb scare', says MP Manchester United 'dummy bomb': security company accepts blame
(about 2 hours later)
Fans who attended the Old Trafford football match that was abandoned after a fake bomb was found should not be left out of pocket, a local MP has said. The managing director of a security company that left behind a dummy bomb responsible for a terror alert at Old Trafford on Sunday has taken “full responsibility” for not removing the item following a training exercise.
Manchester United’s final Premier League game of the season against Bournemouth was called off on Sunday, and the 75,000-seater stadium evacuated, after the discovery of a suspect device that later turned out to have been left over from a training exercise four days earlier. The game has been rescheduled for Tuesday at 8pm. Manchester United’s final Premier League game of the season against Bournemouth was called off and the 75,000-seater stadium evacuated after the discovery of a suspect device that later turned out to have been left over from a training exercise four days earlier. The game has been rescheduled for 8pm on Tuesday.
Related: Manchester United fan from Sierra Leone has dream trip ruined … and then improved Christopher Reid, the managing director of Security Search Management & Solutions Ltd (SSMS), said he was “absolutely gutted” and that the mistake, which has cost Manchester United £3m, was entirely his.
But Kate Green, the MP for Stretford and Urmston, has told the Guardian that fans should be compensated. She said: “It’s not like [most people] can just go and see the game tomorrow instead. People crossed the country to see this game and had hotel costs and travel costs and so on, so I do think that we need to know what’s going to be put in place to compensate them.” “I am absolutely devastated that a lapse in my working protocols has resulted in many people being disappointed, frightened and inconvenienced. Nothing I can say will rectify that,” said Reid, who worked for the Metropolitan police service’s specialist search unit for 26 years, before retiring in 2011.
A spokesman for the Bournemouth fans’ association also called for Manchester United to offer proper compensation to people who travelled to Manchester for the game. “A lot of people have called me today with a lot of support because they know how professional I am ... I would like to say that it would be a waste of all my experience if I couldn’t continue [with my work].”
Manchester United has announced that all tickets to Sunday’s game will be refunded and that entry to the rescheduled match on Tuesday will be free. Bournemouth will offer supporters free coach travel for the 500-mile round trip to Old Trafford from the club’s Vitality stadium. Reid said he led a practical search exercise at the stadium last Wednesday, which involved hiding a number of homemade dummy explosive devices. A mix-up led him to record an eight-inch fake pipe bomb, which was left on a hook behind a cubicle door in the men’s toilets, as having been recovered at the end of the session.
Tony Maycock, a spokesman for the Bournemouth fans’ association the Cherries Trust travelled with his two sons to see the game, staying in a hotel near the stadium. He said the weekend cost him about £300 and that Manchester United should be offering fans like him some compensation. The mocked-up bomb had a small white label reading “training aid. If found contact SSMS” followed by the company’s telephone number.
“If it’s a genuine security issue then that’s fine. If it’s extreme weather that’s fine too, but [Sunday’s incident] was caused by multiple counts of human error, which were all avoidable,” he said. SSMS has previously done work for the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London, Twickenham stadium, the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Farnborough international airshow.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that the security firm which left the dummy bomb at the stadium recorded it as having been removed. Reid would not comment on why the mock bomb was not discovered by staff at Old Trafford for another four days, but said lessons would have to be learned. “It’s very difficult for me to say while I’m here, watching it on the television. The protocols that they have are the protocols that they have,” he said.
Ed Woodward, Manchester United’s vice-chairman, said: “Following investigation, the device proved to have been left in error following the training of dog handlers by a sub-contractor. Ed Woodward, Manchester United’s vice-chairman, said that once the device was recorded as recovered following the training session, the area was sealed. It was then missed during a routine match day test, a fact that Manchester United are investigating.
“The contractor had signed the device as having been recovered along with the 13 other devices at the end of the exercise.” “That device could not have been detected by sniffer dogs on the routine match day search of the 100 Club as it contained no explosives and was used in an exercise training handlers, not dogs,” he said.
United’s home stadium was evacuated 20 minutes before kickoff after the fake device was found in toilets in the north-west quadrant, between the Sir Alex Ferguson stand and the Stretford end. Army bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled explosion. “We are conducting a detailed evaluation with the help of the police and will share our findings across the rest of the game. Valuable lessons will have been learned from yesterday’s events and it is important that those are shared with other stadium operators to ensure that the safety of the public remains the first duty of us all.”
Detailed examination found the package, which had been thought to consist of a mobile phone attached to a pipe, was not viable. A few hours later, Greater Manchester police released a statement saying the package had been identified as a training device. Old Trafford was evacuated 20 minutes before kick-off after the fake device was found in toilets in the north-west quadrant, between the Sir Alex Ferguson stand and the Stretford end. Army bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled explosion.
Mark Stephens, a litigation lawyer, said fans would be entitled to make a claim and that he expected there to be a class action on behalf of fans who have been left out of pocket. “There’s going to be literally millions in terms of travel costs and disturbance costs which can be used against people if they were negligent in not counting back in and out the fake devices,” he said. Detailed examination found that the package, which comprised brass fittings and a length of black pipe with a mobile phone taped to it, was not viable. A few hours later, Greater Manchester police released a statement saying that it had been identified as a training device.
Green, the shadow minister for women and equalities whose constituency includes the stadium, has written to Woodward asking for information on the club’s investigation into the incident and demanding to know how it would reassure the public. Kate Green, the Labour MP for Stretford and Urmston, told the Guardian that fans who travelled to see the game should be compensated. “It’s not like [most people] can just go and see the game tomorrow instead,” she said. “People crossed the country to see this game and had hotel costs, and travel costs and so on, so I do think that we need to know what’s going to be put in place to compensate them.”
“What is most shocking is that this false device lay around for several days unnoticed and we need some assurances that security is going to be tight enough to ensure that if the bomb was for real, this couldn’t happen again,” Green said. Spokesmen for the Bournemouth and Manchester United fans’ associations also called for Manchester United to offer proper compensation to people who had travelled to Manchester for the game.
“It was a very, very lifelike device, so to overlook something that would have been thought immediately to be a real bomb had it been spotted is very worrying.” Manchester United has announced that all tickets to Sunday’s game will be refunded and entry to the rescheduled match on Tuesday will be free. Bournemouth will offer supporters free coach travel for the 500-mile round trip to Old Trafford from the club’s Vitality stadium.
Greater Manchester’s police and crime commissioner, Tony Lloyd, called for a full inquiry into how the bogus explosive came to be left behind. Tony Maycock, a spokesman for the Bournemouth fans’ association the Cherries Trust, travelled with his two sons to see the game, staying in a hotel near the stadium. He said the weekend cost him about £300 and that Manchester United should be offering fans such as him compensation.
He said: “This fiasco caused massive inconvenience to supporters who had come from far and wide to watch the match, wasted the time of huge numbers of police officers and the army’s bomb squad, and unnecessarily put people in danger, as evacuating tens of thousands of people from a football stadium is not without risk.” “If it’s a genuine security issue, then that’s fine. If it’s extreme weather, that’s fine too, but [Sunday’s incident] was caused by multiple counts of human error, which were all avoidable,” he said.
The company responsible for leaving the fake device is reportedly Security Search Management and Solutions. The firm was hired by Deacons Canines to carry out training exercises for sniffer dogs at the stadium last week. Ian Stirling, a spokesman for the Manchester United supporters trust, said people had come from all over the world to see the end-of-season game. “I wouldn’t imagine that people will get enough to cover their whole costs, but I would think that a payment to at least cover some expenses wouldn’t go amiss,” he said.
SSMS says it provides “discreet operational advice and training for venues such as hotels, conference centres and sporting stadia that require a high level of confidence in their security for special events and VIPs”. Mark Stephens, a litigation lawyer, said fans would be entitled to make a claim and that he expected there to be a class action on behalf of supporters who have been left out of pocket. “There’s going to be literally millions in terms of travel costs and disturbance costs, which can be used against people if they were negligent in not counting back in and out the fake devices,” he said.
The company has done work for the Westfield shopping centre in east London, Twickenham RFU, the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Farnborough international airshow. On Monday morning, there was no response at the company’s registered address in Bexley, Kent. Green, the shadow minister for women and equalities, whose constituency includes Manchester United’s stadium, has written to Woodward demanding to know how the club plans to reassure the public.
The company’s director, Chris Reid, said: “It is a very unfortunate situation and the consequences obviously were that a lot of people were inconvenienced. Fortunately everybody was fine, which is the most important thing.” He added that he would say more about the situation after talking to Manchester United. “What is most shocking is that this false device lay around for several days unnoticed, and we need some assurances that security is going to be tight enough to ensure that if the bomb was for real, this couldn’t happen again,” she said.
“It was a very, very lifelike device, so to overlook something that would have been thought immediately to be a real bomb, had it been spotted, is very worrying.”