Former Chief Constable Keith Hellawell has joined the board of award-winning vehicle CCTV makers SmartWitness. Hellawell, currently chairman of Sports Direct, has been appointed non-executive chairman of the Croydon-based firm.
Hellawell’s role will be to prepare SmartWitness for its IPO (Initial Public Offering) when shares in the company’s stock will be sold to fund further expansion.
SmartWitness is splitting from its parent company Y3K. Hellawell enjoyed a distinguished career in the police culminating in his appointment as Chief Constable of Cleveland and then West Yorkshire.
He then became New Labour’s Drugs Advisor, a role he quit in 2002 in protest over plans to downgrade the classification of cannabis.
Since then, he has forged a successful business career – most notably as chairman at Sports Direct, the firm founded by Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley.
Sales at SmartWitness have shot up by 40% in the last two years as increasing number of fleet managers and private motorists use vehicle CCTV systems to improve road safety and reduce insurance premiums.
Just 2% of incidents captured on SmartWitness cameras result in disputed insurance claims – against an industry norm of 40% of motor insurance claims.
A recent survey by the Road Haulage Association found that 50% of all fleets now use in-cab cameras. SmartWitness’ fleet customers have experienced reductions of up to 80% in their incident rates and savings of 20% on their insurance.
SmartWitness chief executive Paul Singh said: “Keith is the perfect candidate to take SmartWitness forward in the next stage of its development.
“We have expanded rapidly in the last few years and it is the right time to seek further investment through an IPO.”
Hellawell said: “I am delighted to be joining SmartWitness which is at the forefront of developing exciting new in-cab cameras.
“These have been shown to markedly improve driving standards and road safety. I have been particularly impressed with their product development including exciting new products such as their new KP1 Instant notification camera, which provides a full range of high definition footage and instant playback.”
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