About Us

The Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) is a UKAS-accredited conformity assessment body, comprised of auditors, certification specialists, and data protection experts. We independently test and certify online and offline systems that check age and identity, such as passport scanners, biometric technology, and age verification software.

Our mission is to protect children from the harm associated with access to age-restricted products, content and services. Safeguarding young people has significant benefits for not just children themselves, but for the community as a whole – so it’s crucial that companies comply with the age restrictions put in place by the government.

We offer a range of services for businesses that need to check identity and age, including Test Purchasing, Age Check Assurance, ID Check Assurance, Age Appropriate Design Certification and GDPR Certification. All our schemes are UKAS-accredited, so you can be sure our audit and certification processes are thorough and effective. They're the ideal way to safeguard young people and ensure your business complies with laws and regulations.

Our Age Appropriate Design Certification Scheme is the first UK GDPR-approved scheme of its kind. Our specialist data consultants have created a robust certification scheme to audit your systems, ensuring they collect, process, and protect children’s data in compliance with the AADC. Our certification will prove to your clients that you take Age Appropriate Design seriously; that your system is compliant, accurate, and suitable for children.

We’ve worked with customers all over the world in a wealth of sectors, bringing our expertise to retailers, age check providers, gambling companies, entertainment providers and more. Find out how we can help your company safeguard young people and stay compliant.

Our Services

Head Office Team

Test Purchase Crew

Number of Visits Completed

Over

2021

We launched Age Appropriate Design Certification Scheme, the first ICO approved criteria for The ICO Children's Code meaning we can provide UK GDPR approved certification to businesses in scope of AADC. At the same time our GDPR certification for Age and ID check providers also received approval.

2021

We were granted UKAS accredited status as a Conformity Assessment Body, demonstrating our technical competence and the quality of work we deliver for clients

2020

We opened our Age Check Testing Studio enabling us to examine all types of age check systems, equipment, devices and ID cards.

2019

We secured investment from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund to help us grow a worldwide certification team and bring high tech jobs and growth to the North

2018

We launched the beta version of our state-of-the-art test purchasing app on the Android and iOS app stores. This app enables our test purchasers to manage their day-to-day activity in a geocoded secure and live process.

2017

We gained our accreditation as a Highfield Qualifications Awarding Centre as we switched from EdExcel, providing new training opportunities, new workbooks and improved services for our learners

2014

We started our first major partnership programme of activity aiming to reduce the number of legitimate retailers that were at risk of selling tobacco to children

2011

We kicked the whole thing off...

Tony Allen

Our Founder and Chief Executive is an expert in age restricted sales, law and practice over 25 years.

Tony Allen

Tony is a Chartered Trading Standards Practitioner with over 25 years of experience in age restricted sales, law and practice. He is Co-Chair of the UK Government's Expert Panel on Age Restrictions and Vice-Chair of Digital Policy Alliance Internet Safety and Policy Group.

He is author of the Law of Age Restricted Sales in England and Wales, now in its 2nd Edition. He is an approved trainer for Highfield Qualifications.

Nick Bate

Our Non-Executive Chairman has a background in advanced information technology across the Data, Communications, Software and Financial Services sectors.

Nick Bate

An experienced Investor, Chairman and NED of a portfolio of listed, private equity-backed and private organisations across the Data, Communications, Software and Financial Services sectors - helping to plan and deliver growth agendas. During the past 12 years my companies have generated exit proceeds of over £330m.

Specialties: My specialty focus has been in the IT software sector over the past 25 years, having also previously held financial lead roles within the manufacturing sector.

Mariam Ayeni

Our Head of Policy and Regulation, Mariam, has demonstrated history of providing oversight, managing and delivering compliance assurance projects that require implementing complex policies and procedures.

Mariam Ayeni

Mariam is a compliance and policy enforcement professional with over 10 years' experience providing oversight and implementing consistent adherence to global and regional compliance, legal, regulatory, and business policy requirements to mitigate and prevent risks associated with the business unit.

She is also a certified anti-money laundering specialist and Certified PRINCE2 Project Management Practitioner.

Danielle Bradbury

Our Company Secretary and Finance Manager is responsible for the smooth running of our head office and providing business support to our whole team.

Danielle Bradbury

Danielle has had significant experience in Administration/Customer Service roles, having starting her career as an Office Junior after leaving school in 1999, she progressed to various roles in the industry over the years and has worked in Age-Restricted Sales for over 5 years. Danielle is our company secretary and manages the day-to-day operations of the business. She is responsible for our finance and ensuring that high standards from order to delivery of all of our products are met. Danielle acts as PA for the Chief Executive and ensures a safe working environment. Committed and hard-working with a genuine devotion for her role.

Mark Cooley

Our Head of Sales and Marketing, Mark is responsible for leading the Sales and Marketing team in building long-standing and strong relationships with our customers.

Mark Cooley

Our Head of Sales and Marketing, Mark is a member of the Institute of Sales Management and has over 17 years experience working in and setting up Business Development teams. He has experience across various sectors including Education, Tech and Financial Services.

At ACCS, he is responsible for leading the Sales and Marketing team in building long-standing and strong relationships with our customers. Mark also manages our commercial partnerships and development of our international presence and global franchise opportunities.

Obi Udanoh

Our Business Development Manager is responsible for customer acquisition, improving and growing the business, by fostering and developing relationships with customers, suppliers and other partners.

Obi Udanoh

Having lived in four different countries, Obi Udanoh brings an understanding of global cultures to his role as Business Development Manager.

He has worked across various sectors; from clients in natural resources to companies securing contracts to deliver remanufactured and recycled products in the West African region.

At ACCS, He is responsible for customer acquisition, accounts management and developing our commercial opportunities. He enjoys networking and building relationships which provide solutions that help clients improve their businesses and succeed.”

Kevin Darby

Our Business Development Manager for the Licensed Retail and Hospitality Sector, Kevin has spent the last 19 years in sales and business development.

Kevin Darby

Kevin Darby was brought up in Pubs then served in the Army as a Military Policeman. He also was an officer in Greater Manchester Police. This has given him great insight into the importance of compliance and enforcement in this sector. During his spare time, he walks with his dog and try to play golf.

Abigail Kitchen

Our Business Development Assistant, Abigail is responsible for booking appointments with new and existing clients to speak with the Business Development Managers, keeping social media accounts up to date and helping out with contract administration.

Abigail Kitchen

Abigail has worked in a lot of bars and clubs around Manchester and Brighton, then became an IST (In Store Trainer) for “the beautiful drinks company” teaching staff how to set up and run a bar smoothly, which gave her insight of retail compliance with underage sales. During her spare time, she likes to listen to music and read a lot of books

John Cassin

Our Senior Certification Officer leads our team of audit, testing and certification specialists.

John Cassin

As our Senior Certification Officer, John has 22 years experience working in trading standards and has been with us for over 10 years. He now leads our team of Certification Officers and uses his extensive knowledge of age restricted sales law, enforcement, test purchasing and auditing to ensure the smooth, effective and efficient audit and certification of our clients.

Darren Hughen

One of our Certification Officers, Darren leads audits, certification visits and is particularly involved in helping our new clients onboard with us.

Darren Hughen

Darren joined our team in June 2019 and brings with him a wealth of Trading Standards experience where he successfully worked on a number of complex and large scale investigations. Darren also has an abundance of experience in working with children both as a Primary School PE teacher and also in a voluntary capacity as an FA qualified coach. His experience and professionalism in both these differing backgrounds drives his enthusiasm in promoting a healthy bright future for the wellbeing of children and young people of the world.

Victoria Gale

One of our Certification Officers, Victoria works particularly on our Partner Programmes for test purchasing and compliance audit activity over longer term projects

Victoria Gale

Victoria worked in Trading Standards from 2006 until 2014 at Cheshire West and Chester Council and Vale of Glamorgan Council respectively. She dealt with all aspects of Trading Standards including the enforcement of underage sales legislation, with a specific remit for all tobacco related matter. She started working for ACCS in 2014 and part of her remit as a Certification Officer is to conduct audits of retail premises where she helps and supports retailers to ensure compliance with underage sales legislation.

Nicola Elkin

One of our Certification Officers, Nicola leads on our audit, testing and certification activity in Asia & Australasia regions and our work engaging with governments around the world.

Nicola Elkin

Nicola has over fourteen years experience in Age Restricted Sales, Law and Investigations. She obtained a Degree in Consumer Protection Law at Manchester University and learnt her craft in local government working in Trading Standards. Working her way through the ranks, she ultimately lead a team of officers in the Commercial Conduct team and was Lead Officer for Underage Sales. Her passion for travel led her to Australia where she heads the Asia and Australasian office for ACCS.

Caroline McGahan

Our Onsite Monitoring Coordinator, Caroline is responsible for managing our team of test purchasers and auditors, managing our state-of-the-art app and our e-cert management system.

Caroline McGahan

Caroline has over 15 years’ experience in training & customer service and has worked in Age Restricted Sales for over 5 years. Caroline ensures effective planning and deployment of our team of Test Purchasers, through our dedicated mobile app. She liaises with colleagues on the Certification Team to ensure a coordinated approach to our monitoring and certification activity to maximise the benefit to our clients. Caroline coordinates the recruitment, induction, training and qualification process for test purchasers including the award of the Certificate in Test Purchasing Competence through Highfield Qualifications.

Rebecca Burgess

One of our Customer Care & Fulfilment Assistants, Becky works across our business support team to ensure that orders are completed and our customers remain completely satisfied.

Rebecca Burgess

Rebecca joined Age Check in 2020, after deciding to return to work from raising her four children and completing her degree. She has had over nine years investing in her children at home whilst on the side carrying out Mystery Shopping assignments. The company’s values and what we strive to achieve is one of the reasons she accepted the job. With having children it is important to her to protect the future generation, so working for a company where her work is valuable and worthwhile is crucial.

Becky is currently on secondment to the Age Verification Providers Association working on the EUConsent project.

Lola Fittes

Our Audit Administration Assistant, Lola, works mainly on Test Purchasing projects, getting the jobs done, report drafting, e-cert and Umbraco.

Lola Fittes

Lola graduated from Birkbeck College with a BA in Management with Japanese in 2018. Her first job on the career ladder was administration in the finance sector. Starting at ACCS in August, has given her greater insight into the importance of administrative duties. She focuses on the deployment and tracking of premise visits and producing reports for our clients on their compliance with current legislation. Lola has worked with young people, both as a tutor and mentor. The work we do here at ACCS has allowed her to ensure the protection of young people.

Amy Carden

Our Administration Assistant, Amy, works across our business to support our team of test purchasers to ensure that orders are completed and our customers remain completely satisfied.

Amy Carden

Amy graduated from the University of Bolton with a BA in Creative Writing in 2017. Having worked as a Head Bartender, Amy gained first-hand experience operating Challenge 25 policy. She has strong customer service and administration skills.

Organisation is where she feels that her passion and talents truly are. She loves learning and developing new skills. She has joined ACCS to challenge herself and to follow her passion. Amy knows that working at ACCS is going to give her the chance to achieve one of her ambitions, which is to have a career that is making a positive difference in other people’s lives.

Isavella Chrysanthou

Our Data Scientist, Isavella ensures that our customers all receive clear, accurate and timely insights to their results, also ensuring robust scientific approaches to our testing protocols

Isavella Chrysanthou

Isavella Chrysanthou is a data scientist born and raised in Cyprus. From a young age, she has been fascinated with technology, including software engineering and gaming, which lead her to study computer science. While studying computer science she developed an interest in data mining, and so she decided to apply for master’s in data science. During her time in ACCS company, she has been able to apply her skills in data mining to uncover interesting information such as using data from visits that test people carry out and visualising them.

Rhianne Kiddle

Our Project Administration Assistant, Rhianne, is responsible for carrying out administrative duties by collecting data, sorting, filing and sending out project files to the right personnel, workers, and stakeholders.

Rhianne Kiddle

Our Project Administration Assistant Rhianne joined the Age Check team in 2020 after gaining a Master’s degree in Creative Writing. She hopes to channel her creativity and passion for helping others by working on exciting new company projects with children’s wellbeing at the heart of them.

Keenan Hughes

Our in-house Software Developer, Keenan graduated from the Manchester Metropolitan University with a First Class Honours Degree in Computer Science in 2018.

Keenan Hughes

Keenan has had first-hand experience working in the software industry, starting in 2016 while he was still studying at university. He has strong software development skills and a great work ethic because he has genuine enjoyment of what he does.

Keenan Joined ACCS because he knows that, not only will his skills be useful in building, fixing and enhancing the apps we use to complete our day-to-day tasks, but also that he will be learning to work with new and interesting technologies that he can use to develop himself and his career.

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