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Wilson Security has been ordered to refund 320 West Australian customers after it charged for security patrols that were not provided.
Wilson was found to have breached Australian Consumer Law and was ordered to pay a total refund bill of $740,000.
The company was contracted to provide internal premise security patrols for 320 companies in Western Australia, but instead provided services that were cheaper than originally paid for.
The company was found to have replaced scheduled internal security patrols with external perimeter security patrols, a service that is generally cheaper and less time consuming.
The ACCC says approximately 48,000 missed internal premise security patrols were charged to customers between July 2011 and September 2017 in Western Australia.
Sarah Court, ACCC Commissioner, says the situation was particularly concerning considering the affected customers were unable to confirm whether these internal checks were being provided.
"The ACCC was particularly concerned by this conduct because customers were unable to verify whether the services they were paying for were actually being delivered," says Court.
"As a result of the ACCC's investigation, affected customers will receive a full refund of the amounts they paid for internal security patrol services that were not provided by Wilson Security."
Court says the ACCC will continue to look for instances of breaching consumer law in situations where the customer is unable to verify whether services have been provided.
"The ACCC will not hesitate to take enforcement action against businesses that take payment but do not provide the services that they have promised to supply, particularly where customers are unable to check if the services have been supplied," says Court.
The ACCC says Wilson Security will make nationwide business improvements to staff training and the monitoring and recording of security patrol services.
The ACCC was not able to comment on investigations in any other states or the potential of investigations in any other states with regard to Wilson Security.
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