Caught Cheating on WebCam (Is it real?)

February 25th, 2008

I’m not sure if this bit of video is real or not but is a great example of how cheaters get caught.

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Scams, Fiddles and The Insurance Investigator

February 23rd, 2008

With one in 10 adults admitting to having made a fraudulent claim* on a general insurance policy, such as home or motor insurance, companies are quite rightly are on their guard. *(Source: ABI (Association of British Insurers) May 2007)

When I saw this documentary on Channel 4’s Cutting Edge, i was left feeling a bit cheated. They never really showed me anything that I didn’t already know about the insurance scams. It was really a bit old hat. There was no covert video of scammers being caught in the act at all.

There was one very (unintentional, I’m sure) comic moment in the programme where a key was given to some guy who was an expert on keys and he looked at it and declared the mileage on it. I thought, “so bloody what? What did that prove?” Then he stated that the van could not have been nicked without a key. Tell that to the car thieves that steal cars and vans every day of the week without the keys. Naturally the investigator had to walk away from that investigation (if indeed you could call it an investigation) because there was no evidence of any wronging doing.

The other day I was involved in a personal injury case and the footage that we acquired proved beyond a doubt that the OP was scamming their insurance company and that type of footage should be shown to make these programmes more hard hitting.

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DM LAW appoints Salgado Investigations as their sole investigative provider

February 22nd, 2008

It can sometimes be an uphill battle to get on the books of solicitor companies out there. Which is why it’s gratifying to be appointed such a high profile firm’s sole provider in investigations.

In their own words;

dml is a vibrant new and unique legal service based in South London, specifically created to provide legal services to small and medium size business as well as individuals.

The deal was struck over lunch in a Japanese restaurant in Croydon and we hope to be helping out DML’s clients to seek out the truth in their cases.

DMLAW is offering a radically different approach to their clients.

Professional Investigation Services

DMLAW now offers a complete range of professional investigative services undertaken by specialist accountants, ex-police officers, fraud managers and ex CPS lawyers experienced in money laundering offences.

From internal audit trials through employment law investigations, criminal and financial investigations to corporate surveillance and process service, DMLAW provide complete packages on either an hourly fee basis or ‘entire-project’ negotiated fees.

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What is a Private Investigator?

February 22nd, 2008

Everybody has seen at least one movie or television show involving a private investigator. Usually on these shows or in these movies, the private investigator works in a shady office and spends his (or her) day crouching in the bushes next to some seedy motel hoping for a “money shot.” A real private investigator, however, is much more diverse.

Often private investigators are hired by defence attorneys or insurance companies. While it is true that private investigators can also be hired to look into private matters they can also be hired to work as process servers, tracing delinquent debtors, and work on corporate matters like anti-fraud and anti-piracy cases.

Most areas require private investigators to obtain a professional private investigation license. Some are allowed to carry firearms. Some are ex-police officers, though this is not a requirement. They are known for their keen observation skills and their knowledge of the laws that govern the jurisdiction in which they work.

There are many benefits to hiring a private investigator. They are often viewed as impartial third parties. When you hire an investigator you are hiring someone who will work to find out the truth, regardless of who benefits from it.

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The surveillance van, the old couple and the police.

February 20th, 2008

There I was parked in a quiet cul-de-sac watching a building across the other side of a T-junction. My colleague is inside a surveillance van parked very close to the buildings front door. I am there purely as backup and to coordinate the job.

The job consisted of following a target to work and I needed to get a few minutes video of them going into the building. Cause it was very foggy, i decided to use the surveillance van close up.

After 10 minutes I decided to move away from the area and went and parked in another street about 2 minutes away. I then get a call from my colleague in the surveillance van whispering, “help, the police are here and they are banging on the van doors”

It was every PI’s worst nightmare and I knew I couldn’t help him. I decided to drive by the van and see what was going on. As I drew level in traffic, I could see a police van and 2 Police Officers walking around the van and peering into the windows. One of the Police officers was talking to an old couple who were pointing at the van and also pointing at the cul-de-sac. I knew then that we must have been seen by them preparing for the surveillance prior to inserting the van in place.

My main concern was to get the van and my colleague out of there with the minimum of fuss and if possible without showing out to the target who as luck would have was at lunch at that present time but who was due to return in minutes.

Many plans were formulated and discarded within seconds as unpracticle and eventually we ended up doing nothing and the police got bored with it and went on to answer a 999 call elsewhere.

My colleague with great presence of mind had curled up into a ball on the floor of the van throughout the event and then managed to take the necessary video when the target returned to the building. He then simply drove out when everything was calm again.

He later told me while we were reviewing the video of the entire incident that the police had been told by the old couple in the cul-de-sac that they had seen 3 men watching the houses with binoculars and then all three had proceeded to get into the back of the van and that they were still in there. The police was overheard telling his controller over the radio that he thought in his opinion that it was a “prelude to a burglary”. Why he thought burglars would hide in a van, i don’t know.

So the lesson here boys and girls of the PI world is always be very aware of the “curtain twitchers”, there’s always one in every street.

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