A FORMER Secret Service agent responsible for protecting three US presidents has spoken of his plans to create hundreds of jobs at a North-East security firm.

Russ Collett, chief operating officer of US-based security company IPC International, said it was to rebrand Gateshead-based St James Security, which it bought in 2005, under its own name.

Chicago-based Mr Collett, who visited the North-East operation yesterday, was appointed chief operating officer five months ago after a Secret Service career which saw him responsible for the security of presidents Clinton and George W Bush.

He was also involved in overseeing the then Senator Obama’s security detail in Chicago, during the US Presidential Election last year.

He is now aiming to create 500 jobs in this country, with a large proportion of them to be based in the North-East, where it has its UK head office.

The company has also opened subsiduary branches in Scotland and Surrey.

It provides a range of services from uniformed security at venues such as shopping centres, to event security and celebrity protection.

IPC is responsible for security of The Great North Run as well as shopping centres and retail parks from Glenrothes in Fife, to Taunton in Somerset.

It also provides ticket checking services as part of its revenue protection operations on the Tyne and Wear Metro.

The parent company serves more than 500 shopping malls in the US.

Despite the different fields Mr Collett said that many elements of his previous role in the Secret Service were not dissimilar to his present job.

He said: “As you can imagine, a lot of people would think the budget for protecting the US President is unlimited but unfortunately it is not. The same rules apply.

“It was a good experience and I hope to bring a lot of things to private security and IPC in the UK.”

He was keen that the company should build closer ties with the police in this country, mirroring the American operation where relevant information is shared between private security firms and the public law enforcement agencies.

He said: “I had the privilege of travelling to 40 countries during my time working with the service and working with law enforcement across the world, building these relationships.

Establishing trust is the most important thing.”

Mr Collett added: “This is an exciting time for our firm.

“The future is bright as we expand our UK operations. We are confident despite the recession and we are recruiting in the UK.”

Mark Partridge, chief executive of IPC Security (UK), said: “Over the next 18 months, with a fair wind, we aim to recruit upwards of 500 people and a lot of those will be North-East-based. The market is resilient to the backdrop of the last two years.”

He said that while it had been a challenging period, with some stores going out of business, there were no boarded up shopping centres.

Mr Partridge cited the companies operations on the Metro as an example of the importance of private security.

He said: “If you look at our contract with Nexus our role is revenue protection.

“It is preventing the fare dodgers because the paying customers subsidise them.”