2003

Leicester, LE8

Service: Bad Debt Recovery Services in the UK

A publican had failed to make the repayments on a photocopying machine and the pub had shut. We went to the homes of his estranged wife and business partner and eventually the publican re-surfaced. After discussions the outstanding debt was discharged and the publican allowed to keep the photocopier.

More Tales From the B.D.I. Casebook

House for Sale Northampton 2008

Local solicitors had asked us to find out what assets a Defendant had.  His house was for sale so posing as husband and wife we found/recorded out that the Defendant had the lease on a restaurant that was not previously known

Tracker 2008

Our client husband sought to prove that his ex-wife was living with another partner now and the amount that he paid her should reflect her changed living status. She denied this naturally despite the fact that his car was almost permanently parked outside the former matrimonial home.  We were instructed to get footage of him coming and going but we suggested that, to keep costs down, we should combine some video footage with the Tracker information over a two week period.  The client wanted us to go there from, say, 7am to, say, 9.00am which we did. The problem was that he left at 5.00am every morning. The tracker gave us this information and we were able to change the start time to cover the early morning start.

Caution: leaving a car outside a property for too long will raise suspicions if not of the Target then of the neighbours. We switch our vehicles about and use boot fitted vehicles.

Advertising Agency 2008

An employee had left and see up his own agency.  Our client suspected that he had poached their customers and wanted us to find out.  It was agreed that we would conduct market research and, using the script given by our client, tape-recorded our marketing phone call, using a female tele-sales person.  After replaying this to our client he was convinced that the ex-employee was not guilty.  By the way we did not breach data protection guidelines but informed the ex-employee about the call being recorded.  It was also good market research for our client because we practised on other local agencies to get it right.

Proceeds of Crime 2009-2011

A well-known gang of millionaire gypsies owed debt.  Solicitors asked for our help in serving the family.  We did this so well that the Defendant solicitors, owed a considerable sum for their assistance in defending the action, instructed us.  We were happy to oblige and the family members were served in a various camps over the county.  The case keeps on rolling on–we are still dealing with the family who now know us well. 

Caution: we never drop our guard when we have to serve defendants.  We are always polite, show common courtesy and are respectful whoever they are.  

Sometimes the defendants get angry but we always persevere.   We believe that by displaying courtesy and firm but fair treatment we will more than likely have a successful outcome.  If they are clearly agitated we try to show sympathy

Blood relative 2009

An illegitimate daughter had already traced her father who rejected any attempt to open a dialogue. The daughter asked for our help several years later saying that she knew that she had a brother and a sister because a previous internet search service had told her so.  She wanted to trace them and gave us the information she had.  Wrong!  There was no sister; nor did they not live in Northamptonshire as suggested.  We traced the only half brother to Berkshire and the daughter wrote a confidential letter to him which we hand delivered to him

Bailiff 2009

A landlord had heard on the grapevine that a tenant company in Leicester were about to go into administration. We distrained on the equipment.  The directors tried to say that the distraint was not legal because they had not received the signed Walking Possession agreement and it was not signed by a competent person.  We were able to counter that because we had actually gone round to the directors home and given him the papers – he refused to accept them but it was good service and the agreement had been signed by a competent person on the site.

Covert camera  2009

Our client had attended a disciplinary meeting.  One of the attendees was an in-house Human Resources person based at Head Office. Our client suspected, however, that she was an outside Employment Law specialist and not the named employee who worked at Head Office.  We were tasked to wear a body camera and speak to the employee.  We did this by delivering a box of chocolates to her and when the client viewed the video we were able to prove that the employee from Head Office had not attended the disciplinary hearing.  

RTA 2009

This was a sad case.  A drunken driver mowed down our student client.  As a result he suffered tetraplegia injuries. We were asked to trace & re-interview all the witness 3 years after the accident.  We found the witnesses in Kent, Birmingham and also Leicester.  All were eventually persuaded to give fresh interviews and statements which enabled us to compile in-depth locus sketches.  The Leicestershire police gave excellent co-operation. Liability was not at issue but quantum depended on exactly where the student was in the road when he was hit.

Bailiff 2009

It’s surprising what information is given to you when you show your bailiff’s certificate. A trace job proved this.  We went to a property that had been sold and spoke to the new owner who had been sold the property by the Target. We told the owner that we were bailiffs after Mr X. The owner immediately told us where the ex-owner had moved to.

Wild West Couriers established 2009

We have a sister company (not the above name) which has been used appropriately to deliver contentious documents and to establish identity of persons living at premises.  The company has its own livery and uniform and documentation.  There is also a website (naturally in the course of construction)

University Challenge 2009

This was a testing job. Canadian insurers were convinced that a defendant’s claim for inability to concentrate for long periods after an accident was bogus.  We tracked the Defendant to a University overseas student apartment and photographed him covertly when we delivered a promotion sample of CD-roms.  We then spent several hours at campus enquiring with his fellow students how the student had done in his exams.  Surprisingly, we got some useful info which indicated that the student was doing well in his examinations.  However, our enquiries got back to the student who approached us.  We were undeterred and completed our enquiries. The information obtained enabled the student and the Insurer to settle out of court on a more realistic basis.

Call us sceptical but we suspect that Insurers just wanted to put pressure on the student to settle at a lower level than he would have done had they not appointed us

Local Repertory 2009

A retired amateur thespian repeatedly ignored requests to perform his duties under a property lease. We served him attending the practice sessions for his theatre company forthcoming play.  We were then asked to find out his home address.  We then had to follow him from the theatre but, because he knew our identity from before and because he had only just been served, he was alert and used anti-surveillance techniques, resorting to using a pedal cycle to evade mobile surveillance. Nevertheless we just followed him.  When he spotted our vehicle, he stopped.  Realising we had been spotted we decided to continue and waited for him to recommence his journey. He eventually did so and, although he stopped again to discourage us, he soon realised that we would be ere persistent.  We brazened it out and followed him to his home.

Rural Obs  Herefordshire  2010

Employment law protocols dissuade solicitors from instructing us to carry out surveillance on ex-employees.  So our client went direct.  The job was, on the face of it, a tricky one: the employee now worked on a farm at the end of a private country lane in the heart of Herefordshire. However, it was easy - if you know how!  We called on our Liverpool team’s video expertise.  We got good footage from our van as the employee was seen working as he passed us and then, using the terrain of a neighbouring hill, got more from an overlooking hill half a mile away.

On this job we used our top of the range Sony Z1 HD camcorder (cost £5K).  The footage proved that the employee was working

Victim of Violence 2010

Warning: the following details are gruesome and not for you if you a sensitive type

Our client was on remand for a second offence of GBH with intent – a Section 18 offence with a life imprisonment term on conviction. However, the victim was no angel, a 6’5” tall, 25 year old gym -goer/weight lifter allegedly barred from a pub in his area for violence at a screening of a football match.  He had already suffered blindness in one eye as a child and now claimed total blindness in both eyes following the glassing.  But our client’s family had heard that all was not as claimed. Using our covert body cameras we photographed the victim in his local pub, playing on a fruit machine, playing cards and also swearing aggressively at the TV screening of an England football match when Wayne Rooney was fouled.  The footage was shown in court and helped our client who was found not guilty of the Section 18 offence.  The case was extensively featured in the local press.

Overnight in Berkshire 2010

We were asked to serve a Bankruptcy Petition on the owner of a garage.  The owner proved elusive and evaded attempts at both his home and garage.  His wife denied he was at home even though we had overheard his voice from within.  What we often do in these cases is leave the Petition there in an effort to lull the defendant to think that we wont be back but go back the next day.  The only trouble with this strategy was the job location in Berkshire.  We camped overnight in the back of our vehicle and got the owner when he emerged from his home first thing the next morning

Wolverhampton Business For Sale 2010

Our client had not been paid for his sale and the buyer alleged impecuniosity after having sold the shop onto another.  We used a tracker to assist us in finding out what assets the buyer had. We put it on his van and this revealed that the buyer had bought another shop in Wolverhampton.

NB: Trackers have battery lives of upto 30 days but the longer the battery life the bigger they are.  We prefer the smaller ones with a smaller charge because the bigger ones in their plastic cases can be seen. 

Infidelity on the coldest night of the year 2010

We were instructed to find out who an ex-wife was seeing. She claimed there was no one else and wanted more money from the client.  We waited all night and the following morning photographed a person coming out of the house. The person was the ex-ex husband and the photograph proved to our client that he was being conned.

Get Carter Newcastle 2011

We were instructed to prove that an ex-employee had breached the restraint of trade clause in his employment contract by working for rival.  As the rival had several different divisions, however, it was possible fro the ex-employee to claim that he was doing a different type of work.  A team of 3 from  our Liverpool and Leicester offices staked out the ex-employee using foot and mobile surveillance as potentially he could drive to any part of the country. In fact he used the train but that did not deter us from following him. We were well on the way to compiling our evidence when the client advised us that a compromise agreement had been reached

Whilst the Cat’s away, the mouse did not play!  Birmingham 2011

Again a team of 3 mobile surveillance vehicles from our Leicester and Liverpool offices were assembled to prove whether or not the client’s fiancée was having an affair.  The fiancée was a businesswoman who travelled extensively throughout Birmingham and over the next 4 days we staked out the fiancée as she left for work, and whilst she did her business calls during the day. The fiancée drove extremely quickly in and around the city of Birmingham including Spaghetti junction but we managed to keep on her tail.  After the four days we were able to report our conclusions to the client that there was no evidence to prove that the fiancée was having an affair and, as far as we could ascertain, it was likely that the fiancée was a hard-working businesswoman.

One that got away 2008