Serco : appoints new Prison Director at HMP Thameside

Serco announces that Dave Bamford has taken over as the new Custodial Operations Director at HMP Thameside in South East London, replacing Craig Thomson who has returned to HMP Kilmarnock in Scotland.

Dave is a highly respected and experienced Prison Director, who has joined Serco at Thameside after 30 years in the Prison service, which he joined in 1990 at HMP Chelmsford after serving six years in the Army.

He worked his way up through the ranks and has served in ten different prisons, governing five of them, including large and complex establishments such as HMP Moorland, HMP Nottingham and most recently HMP Brixton.

Talking about his new job, Dave said: 'I am delighted to be at HMP Thameside, which is my sixth command post. As a local prison serving the London Courts, this prison has a complex and challenging group of prisoners to look after and I am fortunate to have a great team who do a fantastic job. I'm really looking forward to working here and building on all the good work that's been done over the past few years.'

Dave has a Masters Degree in criminology from Cambridge and he was a finalist in the MOJ excellence awards for outstanding leadership earlier this year.