KEY POINTS:
A Wellington security firm says it has pulled the plug on security contracts with a private investigation firm which reportedly used an informant to spy on a client.
Gibson Security Group had a $500,000 security contract with Auckland-base Thompson and Clark, which paid a student to get information from anti-mining group Save The Happy Valley Coalition for Solid Energy.
Gibson Security's managing director Andrew Gibson said he believed moles were also used to spy on protest groups targeting conferences on defence and vivisection.
He ended the contract with Thompson and Clark late last year, because he felt that the use of informants was morally wrong, and the association was attracting unwanted media attention, he told Radio New Zealand.
State Owned Enterprises Minister Trevor Mallard has told Solid Energy that its use of a mole was unacceptable for an SOE.
- NZPA
