The Case in Brief
In large organisations, a certain degree of “self-service mentality” is not unheard of — especially in airport environments where crews or maintenance personnel have access to valuable materials. In this case, however, the dimension was entirely different: the operational head of airport security exploited blind spots and weak back-office controls to benefit himself and his circle.
His method was surprisingly simple: he routinely assigned himself to night patrol duty. During these rounds, he temporarily removed corporate fuel cards from the desks of senior managers, refuelled private vehicles at the airport-owned fuel station, and returned the cards before morning.
The real weakness was not only the offender — it was the system. The executives in question apparently reviewed their monthly fuel statements superficially or not at all. The transactions were all properly recorded, but no one asked why “their” card reflected such extensive activity.
The Trigger: An Anonymous Hint That Nearly Fizzled Out
The case did not surface through internal controls, but through a personal escalation: the security chief provoked his partner significantly — and she knew about the entire scheme, as her own car was regularly refuelled free of charge. She submitted an anonymous tip to airport management.
The police declined to act solely on that anonymous report. This placed senior management in a dilemma: the suspicion was concrete, but legally admissible evidence was not yet available. At the same time, an overt confrontation risked alerting the offender and destroying evidence.
The Solution: A Private Tactical Team Instead of a Public Operation
The airport’s executive board engaged me to handle the matter. Through my network, I brought in a private surveillance unit — former members of a police mobile task force (“MEK”) now operating fully legally and with extreme discretion. My role: Senior Advisor, coordinating between management, HR, legal and the operational surveillance team.
I established a command base in a suite at the airport hotel — equipped with communication and observation systems comparable to the security anteroom of a presidential visit. From there, the surveillance was directed with the objective of documenting the security chief conclusively before he suspected anything.
After several operational nights, the team had sufficient visual and behavioural evidence to prove the fuel card abuse. The plan was to apprehend him “in the act” during another night-time refuelling run.
Night-time Escalation: Intervention in the Crew Shop
On the night of the planned arrest, the security chief expanded his criminal activity: he broke into a crew retail shop on airport grounds where airline personnel can purchase goods at discounted rates. What began as internal resource abuse escalated into a classic break-in within a sensitive airport area.
The intervention occurred around 2:00 a.m. — and proved more dangerous than expected: the security chief was carrying a loaded firearm. The tactical team nevertheless detained him safely and without risk to uninvolved persons. Once secured, I conducted an extensive on-site conversation with him.
By 6:00 a.m., we had:
- a full written confession,
- a complete list of accomplices and associates within the security unit,
- his handwritten immediate resignation, expressly waiving all legal remedies.
Lessons for Airport Executives and Oversight Bodies
For airport CEOs and supervisory boards, several clear takeaways emerge from this case:
- Security “tone at the top”: operational security leadership requires a much tighter compliance framework — not merely trust and a service weapon.
- Hidden weak spots in minor cost categories: routine controls over seemingly small items (fuel, parking permissions, access media) are often the blind spots in otherwise highly regulated environments.
- Handling anonymous reports: whistleblowing systems are ineffective if no clear follow-up process exists — including external escalation paths when authorities are not yet prepared to act.
- Discreet resolution over public crisis: clean, internally controlled investigations with external support can prevent an internal offender case from turning into a public security scandal.
In this case, the airport resolved the matter internally, restructured the security unit and demonstrated to authorities and oversight bodies that concerns were taken seriously and addressed decisively — long before any media became aware of the situation.