A FORMER security guard working in Swindon has obtained a judgement totalling £2,325 after taking a Cornwall company to an Employment Tribunal.

Merkel Dioneza, from Gandy Way, Devizes, won the judgement against the Camborne-based private security firm, WillSecure Ltd.

The firm operates a private security service for clients across Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire.

This includes the Jury’s Inn hotel in Swindon, which was being used by the government to accommodate refugees from Afghanistan.

Mr Dioneza worked for the company for three months from May 2021 to July 2021 before deciding to leave.

He was employed as a security guard working 12-hour shifts from 6pm to 6am six days a week at the hotel.

“We worked a 72-hour week, earning £10 an hour,” said Mr Dioneza, 28, who came to the UK from the Philippines in 2009.

“But I found that deductions from my wages were equivalent to around 2.5 days a week and I was not getting paid holiday pay.”

He decided to take WillSecure Ltd to an employment tribunal. The company was given six months to settle his claims but failed to respond.

Giving his judgement, Employment Tribunal judge N J Roper said Mr Dioneza’s claim for unlawful deductions from wages had succeeded.

He ordered WillSecure Ltd to pay Mr Dioneza 144 hours’ pay totalling £1,440 gross, plus a further £885 for his claim for 88.5 hours of accrued but unpaid holiday pay.

Mr Dioneza was awarded the judgement at an Employment Tribunal in Plymouth on October 20. It was confirmed by the Bristol Civil and Family Justice Centre in Bristol on October 25.

It is understood that Kevin Luke Wills, WillSecure Ltd’s sole director, failed to provide a valid response to the tribunal.

Mr Dioneza says he has not yet been paid his claims.

When people contact the company, WillSecure Ltd asks them to register under the Pay-As-You-Earn scheme or as self-employed.

Many of Willsecure’s security staff are thought to be paid as sole traders through a Penzance accountancy firm called First Payroll Services.

The firm provides them with a PAYE payroll service for their wages and payslips in return for a monthly fee and a separate administrative charge.

Mr Dioneza claims he ended up paying £80-90 a week in fees to the accountancy firm.

He added: “This fee is apart from income tax and national insurance.”

WillSecure was approached for comment.