Two brothers have swapped Great Yarmouth's coastal scenery for the deserts of Libya following the expansion of their security business.

Tremaine and Adrian Kent started CTR services in 2003 when they left the forces.

Their experiences in the forces equipped them with the skills to start their own business offering a range of security services and, after operating in the UK for eight years, they have expanded their operations to Libya.

Adrian said. 'Many of our clients work in the oil industry and are making trips to Libya. A majority of our work involves secure transport and airport pick-ups. We have provided a lot of training in Libya and we're expecting our workload to increase later this month when the elections take place.'

The firm, which has a turnover of �900,000, employs around 25 people in the UK on a contract basis, with five administration staff working full time in the Yarmouth office, which is run by office manager Alison Littlewood. A further 25 are employed in Libya.

'We also have a pool of trained operatives. If we have an operation in Libya, we will send groups of three men – two locals who know the area and one person from the UK.

'We employ a UK manager to maintain operations in London, Libya and Denmark.' Adrian added.

The firm, which has offices in central London and North Quay in Yarmouth, trains people in bodyguarding and close security from all over the world. Training is carried out in Denmark, Libya and Yarmouth and the brothers wrote a level 3 telecoms protection course which they also teach.

'Our courses are focused on close protection and surveillance,' Adrian said. 'We have contracts with Sony Ericsson and T-Mobile, escorting engineers to cell sites.

'These sites are elevated to enable them to get broader coverage They are often located on the top of council blocks, which is where illegal radio stations can operate from. There's also a high number of drug users around those areas and once we were met by a pit bull.

'We provide a duty of care in hostile situations,' he said.

Around 85pc of employees are ex-servicemen and their work is split between training and operational.

Adrian added: 'While it is exciting to be operating in Libya, as a Yarmouth boy myself I find it just as exciting to be working with and offering protection within my local community. My partner and Tremaine's partner are fine with it all. It's all part of what we do.'

Adrian, 35, served in the 20 Commando Battery for eight years, in which time he was deployed to Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone and Kosovo while Tremaine, 42, spent 16 years in the special forces.