For recent surveillance systems, the false detection removal process is an important step which succeeds the extraction of foreground regions and precedes the classification of object silhouettes. This paper describes the false object removal process when applied to the ’SmartMonitor’ system — i.e. an innovative monitoring system based on video content analysis that is currently being developed to ensure the safety of people and assets within small areas. This paper firstly briefly describes the basic characteristics and advantages of the system. A description of the methods used for background modelling and foreground extraction is also given. The paper then goes on to explain the artefacts removal process using various background models. Finally the paper presents some experimental results alongside a concise explanation of them.