EXETER, N.H. ? A Tyco International Ltd. subsidiary that specializes in home security systems has severed its ties with two dealers who are convicted felons, the company said.

ADT Security Services Inc., the country’s largest home-alarm company, also said it would do another round of criminal background checks on its 515 authorized dealers and their key employees.

ADT said it barred felons from working as dealers and employed an outside vendor to perform criminal background checks. But over the weekend The Wall Street Journal reported it had identified five current or former ADT dealers who are convicted felons.

“ADT was very disturbed to hear allegations that a small number of dealers have criminal records that they may have deliberately concealed,” the company said in a statement. ADT promised to “terminate any other dealers found to have criminal records.”

Sources familiar with the situation said ADT had cut its ties with Crime & Fire Prevention Consultants Inc., Overland Park, and Alert America of Tennessee, Nashville.

Crime & Fire Prevention Consultants is operated by Paul Steger, who spent 13 months in an Iowa prison for check forgery, starting in 1989, the newspaper said.

Steger said he agreed to a background check when he applied to become an ADT dealer two years ago, but the company did not ask him about his record.

“It’s their responsibility to determine my fitness,” he said.

Steger started the firm, which won an award from ADT for rapid growth, with financial backing from Scott Warner, who spent 1990 to 1997 in federal prison for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, the newspaper said.

ADT also dropped Warner as a subcontractor who repairs and installs alarm systems. Warner declined to comment.

Sources also told the Journal that ADT cut ties with Alert America in Nashville because the dealership’s biggest investor, Britt Gober, pleaded guilty to possessing more than 10 pounds of marijuana for resale in January 1992.

He served 30 days in jail.

Gober did not return telephone calls.

Tyco, a manufacturing conglomerate based in Bermuda, saw its stock close up 69 cents to $16.04.