Our Team of Experts

Bob Cummings

Robert Cummings

ASSOCIATE
Personal Injury, CVIT, Tiger Kidnap, Retail Security, Manned Guarding

An Associate of SafeGuard, Robert (Bob) Cummings had  a long and successful career with the Metropolitan police, including 6 years as the operational head of The Flying Squad, before joining Loomis UK as head of loss prevention in 2010. He has been an independent security consultant and expert witness since 2012.

Background and Experience

Bob Cummings joined Safeguard Security in 2016 to provide expert witness and litigation services in the areas of retail (including betting shops), armed robbery, cash and valuables in transit (CVIT), personal injury, loss prevention and Tiger Kidnap.

Bob is a highly skilled investigator and a specialist in the fields of commercial robbery reduction, particularly CVIT robbery, as a result of his extensive experience in both law enforcement and the commercial world.

A detective for 29 years, Bob was posted to the Flying Squad in 1995 and retained twice on promotion both to Detective Inspector and Detective Chief Inspector.  He was commended several times following successful investigations, including by His Honour Judge Machin, regarding an organised gang of armed and extremely dangerous robbers.  The gang,  who had carried out over 100 offences against security vans and banks in a 6 year period, all received sentences in excess of 22 years – the highest for robbery offences since ‘The Great Train Robbers’.

As the senior investigating officer for numerous ‘live’ kidnap situations, Bob achieved a 100% successful recovery of hostage rate.

As a Detective Superintendent with Westminster Borough, responsible for the full range of crime matters, he led the team to identify and spread best practice across 5 divisions and 1300 staff.  Westminster was the only Metropolitan Police Service Borough to achieve all key performance targets.

Bob was also a key member of the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB/Police Regional Partnership group) and helped spread best practice across the industry.  He acted as strategic lead on the ‘The SafeBet Alliance’, a voluntary code of minimum security standards for the Betting Industry and represented the Metropolitan Police on the Home Office Committee for Betting Shop security.

Following retirement Bob joined Loomis UK, an international cash and valuables in transit company as head of loss prevention.  With specific responsibility for the development and implementation of the risk reduction strategy both internally and externally, Bob achieved a 49% reduction in raids (and commensurate reduction in injuries to employees) as well as reducing losses by 42% in 2011.  He represented the company at key stakeholder meetings including the Home Office CVIT Strategic Steering Group, the British Security Industry Association, The British Retail Consortium CVIT Groups and the National Cash Centre Security Group.

Bob is an excellent communicator, well versed in court appearances and a skilled presenter including TV.  CPR trained, Bob is an experienced expert witness in the fields of CVIT, Tiger Kidnap and armed robbery and the betting industry.

Download Bob’s curriculum vitae

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