I was subsequently elected onto the governing council (GC) of WAPI in charge of Electronic Media (SEO). Hopefully I will do a much better job of this role than my last one.

Beverly Flynn from Insight Investigations did an absolutely marvellous job in organising the WAPI 2008 Banquet.

2008 WAPI Annual Banquet on October 25th 2008 - The World Association of Professional Investigators, WAPI, is a professional body, formed by professionals, for professionals. It covers all areas of investigation, public sector and private sector, companies and individuals, corporate and domestic.

WAPI meets the need for a worldwide organisation, which can provide a focal point for investigators. It promotes the profession internationally and provides networking opportunities through which members can exchange ideas, knowledge, methods, advice, education and working assignments.

The WAPI Governing Council have elected to host the 2008 WAPI Annual Banquet on October 25th 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Central Birmingham a favourite Venue due to its central location, ease of access from around the UK and for our Overseas Guests alike!

Well after having donned my tuxedo, I joined the rest of the GC on the line-up in order to greet all the guests. After about 10 hand shakes, the novelty was wearing off. Unlike when I was there at the WAPI Banquet 2006, I actually knew loads of people who were attending including 10 members of e-LEGAL | Gathering, one of which, Maria Cooper of Warwickshire Investigation Agency won an award for Best Newcomer of the year.

The table where I was sat was at the back of the room which worked out quite well as it allowed us to talk without annoying the speakers too much. to my left was my friend and colleague Freddy from The Arabian Knight Ltd, next to him was Victoria Mitchell from Foxglove and Surveillance Services, then there was Maria Cooper (Warwickshire Investigation Agency) and her partner Kim, Neil Sheppard (Trident Investigations Ltd) and his Fiancé Kerry and last but not least, David Claire and Matt Frost from Alpha Detective Agency. Also there but not at our table was Tony Goring (Aclarado Enquiries) and KPS (DK Investigations).

Well all in all it was a good night and the band was great.

What do you do if you find out your employees are writing about you on the internet? Do you join in and build on a popular listing, thereby showing you’ve got a sense of humour and are open to feedback, or do you throw the book at them and try to get the site pulled immediately? I guess that largely depends on what they’re writing, but when it’s something you’d prefer stayed behind closed doors, then you could legitimately be looking at a gross misconduct dismissal for bringing the company name into disrepute, or even perhaps, breach of confidentiality depending on the contents and what’s already in the public domain.

We’ve already seen cases where employees have been sacked for what’s been written in their blogs (remember Waterstones some two years or so ago, when blogging was strictly for geeks?), but as the media continues to obsess about the time spent by employees on social networking sites like Facebook (I have to confess it is rather addictive, and yes, I have been going on there in work time – sorry!), could this actually become a legitimate way of raising concerns about a company?

Could the blog become the new whistle-blowing letter to the firm’s accountants or other nominated ‘safe’ contact of the future, and thus give the author automatic protection from recriminations from the firm??? Could these sorts of postings be deemed to be in the public interest? Might we see future legislation or maybe case law indicating that the practice of blogging is the worker’s ‘right’ to freedom of speech, and that any wrong-doing highlighted therein is a ‘protected disclosure’?

Sounds a bit far-fetched for the time-being, but who knows – with the way case law and legislation is going in this country – watch this space!

you sit and compose letters of introduction to Financial Institutes, companies, Local Authority and every Solicitor in your area. very good BUT WAIT.

In your letter to the solicitors have you outlined the services you provide to the legal services. this is an area that takes some though, have you looked at the area,s of law that each solicitor may deal with, are you conversant with the relevant information needed to carry out any work put your way.

Here is a list of the area,s of law most solicitors cover.

 These are the areas of law and legal practice in which the Law Society is most active.

	Alternative dispute resolution
	Charity law
	Children law
	Civil liberties and human rights
	Civil litigation
	Clinical negligence
	Commercial law
	Commercial property
	Company law
	Competition law
	Computer and IT law
	Consumer law
	Conveyancing residential
	Costs
	Courts, tribunals and judiciary
	Criminal law
	Disability
	Discrimination law
	EU law
	Employment law
	Environmental law
	Family law
	Financial and investment services
	Fraud
	Immigration law
	Insolvency and bankruptcy
	Intellectual property law
	International law (non EU)
	Landlord and tenant - residential
	Legal aid - civil
	Legal aid - criminal
	Legal aid - immigration
	Mediation
	Mental health and incapacity law
	Older people
	Personal injury
	Planning law
	Practice management
	Professional regulation
	Tax law
	Travel and tourism
	Trust law
	Wills and probate

So now you have the list how many area,s have you explored before offering your services.

Yes, we know we’ve all done it – you’ve finally got a great job applicant in front of you after spending all morning interviewing every misfit under the sun, and before you know it the offer’s out of your mouth and they’re starting on Monday! Somehow that recruitment paperwork never quite gets done, and you’re ready to move on to the next pressing people problem.

Easily done we know, but unfortunately in today’s increasingly legislated work environment, such a lack of paperwork has the potential to leave you in a very risky position. Whilst we’re all for the paperless office, sadly when it comes to HR records, this is one area where a lack of paperwork will do far more harm than good.

Ask yourself this: If you haven’t got scoring criteria to prove it, how can you show that the decision not to appoint the only male applicant wasn’t because of his sex but because he scored lower than the successful applicant who just happened to be a woman? Or argue your way out of the £10,000 fine for employing an illegal worker, if you haven’t taken a photocopy of what you thought was an authentic passport?

A few minutes spent on carefully thought out paperwork now, can save hours, not to mention £s, later (remember there’s no cap on compensation payments for discrimination claims which can be brought even at the job advert stage!). It needn’t be anything fancy or long-winded – a simple tick-list can do the job quite nicely and will also ensure that you don’t have enough space to write anything rude or insulting about the candidates that could come back to haunt you!

To help you get a manageable paperwork system in place, Salgado Investigations recommend the following tips:

• Keep to one page per candidate and use bullet points with a space for a tick, cross or mark out of say 5
• Set out each of your essential criteria such as: degree in X, knowledge of Y, etc. as a simple tick box – they either have or they haven’t so why complicate things?
• Decide upon scoring criteria for testing key skills and capabilities, with say 5 as meets perfectly to 1 as little/no match and agree a cut-off pass mark before the interviews.
• Don’t forget to have housekeeping reminders to work through at the bottom, so you can ensure that you remember to ask about all those little details like booked holidays and notice periods; but more importantly, tick boxes to show you’ve double-checked their criminal records statement, you’ve seen and photocopied their proof of eligibility to work, and any essentials like driving licence or exam certificates.
• Complete one for each candidate and keep securely for 6 months just in case anything is ever questioned.
•  And finally, take great delight in shredding once the tribunal time limit’s passed!

Private Investigators carry out undercover enquiries for their clients, including solicitors, insurance companies, councils, private companies and individuals.

As a private investigator, you would ask questions and analyse information to carry out background research. Your work could also include:

• surveillance
• fraud investigation
• missing persons enquiries
• investigating insurance claims
• presenting legal documents (process serving)
• investigating commercial piracy
• personnel vetting.

You would typically work alone as a self-employed or freelance investigator. You would use a computer to process detailed reports and often maintain your own accounts.

What qualifications and experience will employers look for?

You may not need qualifications to start work as a private investigator. However, a good general education and experience in a security related field would be helpful. Business skills are also important because most opportunities in this area involve working as a freelance or self-employed investigator.

The Academy of Professional Investigation (API) runs a BTEC Level 3 Advanced Diploma in Private Investigation, which can be used as a first step into this career. With this qualification you may have an advantage when looking for work experience or paid work with an agency.

The Association of British Investigators (ABI) and The World Association of Professional Investigators (WAPI) have details of local private investigators you could contact about gaining experience. The ABI also produces the Process Servers Guide – knowledge of this could increase your chances of finding work presenting and serving legal documents.

The Private Security Industry Act 2001, outlines a system for regulating the sector, which includes private investigators. The Security Industry Authority (SIA) is working towards publishing full details of their plans to license private investigators. Check the SIA website for details.

A driving licence is usually essential for this work.

What further training and development can I do?

Once you are working as a private investigator with an agency, for example, you will usually receive training on the job from your employer. You can support this by working towards qualifications such as NVQ Level 3 in Intelligence Analysis.

There is a range of courses you could do to develop your skills and knowledge in this area, for example:

• The Association of British Investigators (ABI) has details of providers offering a 2-day Foundation Course in Investigation, and a 5-day Professional Private Investigator course
• The Institute of Professional Investigators (IPI) has details of courses in tracing, and setting up in business
• The API BTEC Level 3 Advanced Diploma in Private Investigation can be done before or after you start work in this field.

Where can I go for more information?

27 Old Gloucester Street
London
WC1N 3XX
Tel: 0871 474 0006

PO Box 1293
Liverpool
L69 1AX
Tel: 0844 892 1025

83 Guildfort Street
Chertsey
Surrey
KT16 9JL
Tel: 0870 330 8622

Clair House
3-5 Clair Road
Haywards Heath
West Sussex
RH16 3DP
Tel: 01444 441 111

212 Piccadilly
London
W1J 9HG
Tel: 08709 099 970

e-LEGAL | Gathering, The UK’s 1st “open” private investigator discussion forum provides an on-line resource to private investigators, lawyers and members of the public.

What’s in it for you? You can contextually link back to your own website.

What’s in it for me? I get fresh content for The PI’s Diary

1. Put everything in writing – contracts, policies, procedures, actions agreed, meeting notes, etc. etc. You may have to sacrifice a few minutes now, but believe us it will prove time well spent if it avoids any doubt at a later date.

2. It doesn’t pay to be nice! No, we don’t mean that you shouldn’t be friendly, polite or treat your employees well – just don’t make exceptions or excuses on the basis of wanting to “be nice” to them. It is a sad but only too often seen scenario, that in letting someone get away with being late one day, this opens the door to them being late each week; that by paying full sick pay to your star performer you’ve created a precedent for paying everyone else; and that by turning a blind eye to a policy breach for one ends up negating the whole policy which you may later want to apply to others. The moral of this story? Don’t be “nice” – be consistent and fair – it’s nicer to all in the long run!

3. Assume your employees know nothing! Not really as insulting as it sounds, but the safest way to implement concrete policies you can all rely on. If you don’t specifically tell someone something and have the document trail to show that they have been told it, you can pretty much assume that in the eyes of the law they can’t be expected to know it! If you not only make policies straight-forward, simple to read and clear to understand, but get employees to sign to say they’ve read and understood them, then everyone can know where they stand – problem solved!

4. Don’t put off ‘til tomorrow what you should be doing today! You can guarantee that the problem won’t go away, and that things really won’t improve even if left another week. All you can bank on is that you’ll have an even tougher time trying to resolve the issue, and in some instances may even have prevented yourself from safely tackling it at all. If you have a concern – act on it. That doesn’t necessarily mean disciplinary action but perhaps simply some constructive feedback and helpful pointers. Just like training a dog, feedback or corrective action needs to take place as close to the event in question as possible otherwise the poor creature will have no idea what they’re being chastised (or even praised) for! If you therefore see one of your employees do something you do or don’t like – have a quiet word with them there and then whilst it’s still fresh in everyone’s memories. If you do need to consider disciplinary action, then it’s even more important that this is tackled in a timely fashion, as leaving an issue unaddressed for several weeks would suggest to everyone else that it isn’t really an issue at all, making any punitive action you want to consider appear completely unjustified!

5. Take a deep breath and count to ten…gather your thoughts, gather your evidence, and most importantly – gather your composure! Whilst you shouldn’t be putting things off, you shouldn’t be rushing headlong into spur-of-the-moment decisions either. When you feel like you want to throttle someone (never recommended!) or throw the book at them, try to step back a minute and consider why that is. If it is because of what they’ve just done, fair enough; but if it’s because they’re a general pain in the b**t and this last incident was simply the final straw, then you need to tread carefully to ensure your response really does fit the crime. (Think juries not being allowed to know of past convictions and you’re along the right lines). Take time to properly gather your evidence, ensure that you have everything you need to present your case, and make arrangements for the best placed people to hold the necessary meetings, making detailed notes as you go. Again, as per Tip1, time wisely spent now in properly preparing for the action you want to take will pay dividends later, and could even mean the difference between a fair and unfair dismissal (and several £000)!

The Stark Facts

* Nearly a quarter of UK small businesses will suffer employee theft or fraud.
* 53% of unexplained losses are actually the result of staff theft.

Don’t forget that staff dishonesty may have many guises. In the modern technological age it might not be the classic “fingers in the till”. Examples of crimes committed, which we have successfully investigated include the theft of customer data and/or the sale of of the data to third parties. In the case of customer data, it is the business owner who has to demonstrate that they have stringent security measures in place, in line with the Data Protection Act.

Our corporate Investigations department investigators are specialists in preventing employee fraud or theft and if the worst has happened, successfully investigating theft or fraud and ensuring you have sufficient evidence to take appropriate action.

Our specialist corporate investigators can help by;

1 - Thoroughly verifying a new employees employment history.
2 - Supplying covert surveillance services and undercover operatives to establish evidence of theft.
3 - Supplying suitably qualified investigative interviewers to establish the facts in a case.
4 - And ensuring that you have collected evidence in a legal, ethical and effective manner in line with your companies terms and conditions of employment.

We can work closely with your HR department or offer a Human Resource specialist from within our own team to ensure that each employee, and your own business, is treated fairly and ethically.

Lets hope that you never need our services in this respect. But if you do, call us, Salgado Investigations for confidential, effective and fast action.

4Networking, which was launched just over two years ago in Somerset, is now the UK’s largest joined up breakfast networking organisation with more than 180 groups, including Croydon, Guildford and Heathrow.

The Croydon group who’s group leader is Croydon based Private Investigator Jorge Salgado-Reyes is launching on Friday 12th September and will meet fortnightly on Friday’s from 8.00 and 10.00am at the Purley Downs Golf Club - South Croydon, Surrey, CR2 0RB, allowing members to build their businesses over breakfast! The Croydon launch has over 29 businesses booked in for the event.

Managing Director Brad Burton, who originally dreamed up the 4Networking concept while delivering pizzas door to door, says “Many small, new businesses find the prospect of networking daunting, put off by the perception that everyone is more successful and experienced than they are.

“4Networking challenges those perceptions and offers genuine business and personal support with a friendly face.”

As well as attending face-to-face meetings, 4Networkers can join an online forum, (www.4networking.biz), where they have the chance to do business with like-minded people and feel comfortable discussing issues that worry them. They can also share problems, knowing they have the support of others who have faced similar challenges setting up their own businesses.

“4N is about getting to know people, liking them and trusting them – then you’ll do business with them,” says Brad. “With our passport membership you can network and do business four days a week right across the country – and it’s a formula that works!”

4Networking’s impact on the UK’s business scene and achievement in bringing businesses together has also been recognised by two major High Street banks – HSBC and Barclays – who have both put the organisation through to the regional finals of their respective business start up competitions.

For further information about 4N, visit www.4networking.biz or contact Jorge on 020 8686 9657.

Retailers are losing billions every year through theft, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium and about a third of this sum is attributed to dishonest staff.

As a result, retail companies are turning their attentions to internal problems, says Salgado Investigations’ senior corporate investigator Jorge Salgado-Reyes. A starting point is for companies to improve their vetting procedures during recruitment” he says. “The reality is that every major retailer has internal theft problems”.

New opportunities for staff to commit internal theft have emerged, thanks to the nature of modern retailing. For example, credit card technology gives internal scammers the ability to perform a refund transaction on their own or a friends credit card in‐store and later share the spoils. There is no physical movement of product or cash. And dishonest staff who, according to research, tend to be part‐time workers or those employed with a company for less than 12 months are ‐ searching out new ways of helping themselves. “I have investigated staff who have clocked up loyalty points on their own loyalty cards, when processing a customer’s purchases,” says Jorge Salgado-Reyes.

Retail fraud investigation specialist Jorge Salgado-Reyes says retailers must understand where such problems take place in their store.

“Technological solutions that link CCTV with EPOS or enable data mining of EPOS information to alert managers to till fraud are more common. For example, if a member of staff is carrying out an unusual number of refunds, but the CCTV shows no product being passed back, you can take action.
Similarly, clocking up fewer scans per minute than the average, managers are alerted to watch out for items being passed out for free. You might then use CCTV to investigate further.”

Jorge Salgado-Reyes urges retailers to take a holistic approach to investigations, looking beyond traditional shrinkage, because it often unearths wider operational problems that, when rectified, can save the company significant sums. “Profits may be down, but shrinkage is a constant, so losses take a larger percentage off the bottom line,” he says.

“Implanting a culture of zero tolerance needs to start with company‐wide adherence to robust company procedures,” he says. “It’s no good having woolly guidelines about when tills should be opened and how refunds are processed and recorded, because this plants the seed of opportunity in the minds of the staff. To minimise temptation, all staff need to be aware that procedures are set in stone and any straying from the rules will be investigated.”

Jorge Salgado-Reyes is also a strong advocate of properly supported systems of whistle‐blowing within the company. This involves staff being given an incentive to report suspected dishonest behaviour using a confidential helpline. Zero tolerance means dismissing and prosecuting dishonest employees wherever possible and communicating these actions back to the staff.