Tim Spicer

Timothy Simon Spicer is a former Lieutenant-Colonel in the Scots Guards and CEO of the private security company (PSC) Aegis Defence Services. He is a veteran of the Falklands War and served with the British Army in Northern Ireland. He is a former employee of Sandline International, a private military company (PMC) which closed in April 2004. Born in 1952 in Aldershot, England, Spicer followed his father into the British Army, attending Sandhurst and then joining the Scots Guards. SInce that time, in his work in the Private Security Contracting world Spicer has been embroiled in several controversies: -Spicer was involved in what became a controversial incident while serving in Northern Ireland in 1992. Soldiers of the Scots Guards under Lieutenant Colonel Spicer's command shot and killed Catholic civilian, Peter McBride. -When employed by Sandline International, Spicer was involved in military operations in the Sierra Leone Civil War, which included importing weapons in apparent violation of the United Nations arms embargo[5]. He had been contacted by Rakesh Saxena, an Indian financier hoping that a new government would grant him diamond and mineral concessions. The controversy over this incident, and whether the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) knew of Sandline's actions; inquiries into it concluded that the FCO had known of the actions, and that Spicer believed he was not breaking the embargo. There was speculation that the British and the US governments may have lent tacit approval to Sandline's activities. Spicer has always denied that he or Sandline did anything illegal. Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Spicer