Jorge Salgado-Reyes - Private Investigator

January 6th, 2008

Magnum - P.I., Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Sherlock Holmes, Simon Templar, Crocket, Vincent.

Of the fictional PI’s that I’ve watched in my (sometimes) misspent youth, the character that has had the greatest impact on me was Rick Deckard from the Hollywood movie BladeRunner. Especially the part were he is looking in a newspaper for a job and the voice over says “They don’t advertise for killers in the newspaper. That was my profession. Ex-cop. Ex-blade runner. Ex-killer.”

The impression that most people have of PI’s is very much what they see in the American movies. AS we all know, the reality is a whole lot different. For starters I don’t drive around in a white Ferrari and I don’t carry a gun or any other weapon.

The investigations are, for the most part routine and tend to consist of lots of process serving, tracing down people who are lost (for one reason or another) and spying on people’s partners.

For me the most exciting types of investigations are the commercial and retail frauds where I get to gather evidence about employees and once gathered i get to interview them. It is satisfying to obtain a confession as a culmination of several months work.

So remember the next time you meet me, don’t expect me to show up to the meeting in a white Ferrari wearing a mac.

Posted in Surveillance, General, Tracing, Retail Fraud Prevention, Process Service | No Comments »

What is Retail Fraud?

November 12th, 2007

Retail crime in the UK is estimated at well above the £½ billion mark per year. 80% of retail fraud is at point of sale, i.e. till fraud.

Retail businesses lose an average of 1% to retail fraud each year. Research shows that 25% of employees are totally honest, 25% are totally dishonest, and the remaining 50% are swayed by opportunity.

Many members of staff do not regard consuming goods or taking goods for personal use as theft, but as perks of the job.

Till fraud is totally predictable, and is a function of the degree of security employed. Awareness significantly reduces your risks. If you operate tills, all your staff must be vetted, monitored and spot checked at all times to ensure that risks are kept to a minimum.

Detection methods must be robust, resilient and adequate if they are to combat the scourge of rogue staff perpetrating till fraud. Once theft or fraud is detected, the culprits must be caught sooner rather than later, and sanctions imposed within the limits of the law.

CATEGORIES OF TILL FRAUD

• Sweet-hearting: An accomplice (“sweet-heart”) presents expensive items for purchase. The till operator either rings up the items at a lower price, or fails to register items altogether. This type of loss shows up later as “shrinkage”.

• No Sales/Void: “No sales” purchases accumulate a cash surplus in the till, which is then removed by the end of the shift. “No sales” should be exceptional items, and should be checked, in particular towards the end of the shift. This, however, makes heavy demands on management time, which gives rogue staff the  opportunity they are looking for. Voids are a variation of “No sale”, with a genuine purchase cancelled after the client has left the premises. The surplus is removed from the till by shift end.

• Returns and Refunds: Items of stock are removed from the shelves and presented to the till for refund. Cash is paid to an accomplice (sweet-heart) or to the till operator.

• Substitute Scanning: Where checkouts are equipped with barcode scanning devices, the operator passes two items over the scanning device at one time so that only one item is recorded (normally the low value item).

Posted in Retail Fraud Prevention | No Comments »