Security guards at Brixton O2 Academy ‘took bribes from people with no tickets’

Security guards would each let in ‘a couple of hundred’ extra people into venues in exchange for money, whistleblower alleges

Some security guards working at the venue where a deadly crowd crush took place accepted bribes from concertgoers without tickets, it has been alleged.

Security guard Gaby Hutchinson, 23, and mother-of-two Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, were fatally injured when fans without tickets tried to enter an Asake concert at the O2 Academy in Brixton last month.

A whistleblower has now told the BBC that some security guards would each let in “a couple of hundred” extra people into venues in exchange for money.

Rohan, which is not the guard’s real name, told BBC Radio 4’s File on Four programme: “There were people taking money... Some staff made £1,000 cash.”

“Our company knew what was going on and they knew the people who were doing it,” he told the broadcaster, “and they did nothing about it.”

AP security, the security guards’ employer, has been approached by The Independent for comment.

The scene outside Brixton O2 Academy following the crowd crush (PA Wire)

Rohan was working on the front door of the Brixton venue at the time of the fatal crush on 15 December. He described the scene as resembling the site of “a car crash that’s been really awful.”

The guard claimed that just 110 members of the security team had been working that night, when there should have been 190.

Rohan also told the BBC he had witnessed both Mr Hutchinson and Ms Ikumelo become caught up in the deadly crush. Both were rushed to hospital, where they later died.

There is nothing to suggest that Mr Hutchinson was involved in taking bribes.

Explaining how some of his colleagues would allow individuals without tickets into the music venue, Rohan said: “When you let a few people in, they would text their friends, and they’ll text their friends.

“And the bouncers started being greedy, and it got out of hand. And people wanted to come in anyway, without a ticket.”

Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, and Gaby Hutchinson, 23, were fatally injured in a crowd crush at the venue in December (Metropolitan Police)

The guard claimed someone wanting to enter the venue without a ticket would speak to security staff by the barrier controlling the queue of people waiting to get in.

He said staff would “tell you a few things, [then you] go round the corner... give them a lot of cash and they will walk you straight in the front door”.

Rohan’s claims were corroborated by a ticketless concertgoer interviewed by the BBC, who described being told by a doorman to go across the street to a cash machine, before being sent a ticket by a specific security guard on WhatsApp.

The man, identified by the BBC only as Andre, said his ticket to watch the DJ Fred Again was then “fake scanned.”

“It felt really organised and it felt that we weren’t the only people that got in that way,” he said.

Lambeth Council suspended the venue’s licence shortly after the tragic crush (PA Wire)

It comes after the O2 Academy Brixton had its licence suspended for three months over the crowd crush. The decision was made by Lambeth council’s licensing sub-committee on Monday.

Chairman of the sub-committee, councillor Fred Cowell, said: “The decision of the licensing sub-committee is that the premises licence is suspended for a period of three months from today, expiring at one minute past midnight on April 16 2023.

He added: “No licensable activities shall take place at the premises unless and until an application to vary the premises licence has been made by the premises’ licence holder.”

The meeting was called after an application by the Metropolitan Police. Gerald Gouriet KC, representing the force, said the full extent of the injuries caused by the crush is still unknown.