The Private Investigator Friend or Foe?

The Private Investigator has always been portrayed in the cinema as a charismatic dark, sometimes sinister figure and in the media as a 16 year old cyberpunk cracking foreign intelligence codes and now, of course, as a criminally minded social intruder and phone hacker.
Many see PI’s as a civilian spy, a one-man band trying to make a meagre living from day-to-day routine enquiries waiting in anticipation of the ‘big job’.
So what exactly is a private investigator? The ex-police officer serving papers from the court in divorce proceedings? The retired person whose sense of curiosity and justice stirs them into action? Or the slick, quick, industrial-espionage specialist who continually tries to foil and outwit unscrupulous business people who are bent on financial and political power? Or the PI working for them to bring power by information at any price?
The truth of it is that all of the above and many other definitions fit into the world of the modern day Sherlock Holmes. The type of work carried out by investigators is as diverse as the people who take up the profession. As well as the usual, widely accepted and well-known matrimonial and divorce work, the modern investigator can be called upon to act as a professional witness, involved in gathering evidence to support legal applications put before the court. Sometimes the PI will be called upon to work in criminal investigations to help prove a theft or some other crime, and to gather evidence to be given to the police as part of a court case being presented before a judge or passed to a journalist to expose a wrong-doing. On the other hand, the PI may have to work for the defence of a suspected criminal, meticulously sifting through the evidence and challenging any inconsistencies or locating and interviewing possible defence witnesses.
I’ve worked as an investigator for more than 30 years and I have been called upon to carry out investigations to locate and prove that firms or individuals are manufacturing or supplying goods without the license-holder’s consent. Retail and manufacturing companies have used the skills I learned as a soldier to work undercover or to carry out covert surveillance, gathering information to determine how their employees operate out of site of management, to identify individuals or teams involved in theft, using company equipment without consent or selling intellectual intelligence and testing the company’s security and systems. I have been deployed overseas working undercover to expose Letter-of-Credit fraud, child abduction and protection. I’ve lived in attics, under garden sheds, in disused properties, even in drains gathering video evidence to show that a claimant – although saying that he/she is unable to work – is in fact fit and healthy. I’ve met with Special Branch and handed information over to uncover future terrorists leaving the UK for training abroad.
I would argue that society will always have the need for information and in most cases the needy will not really care how that information was gained.

Phone Hacker or Intelligence Gatherer? The Private Investigator

The Private Investigator has always been portrayed in the cinema as a charismatic dark, sometimes sinister figure and in the media as a 16 year old cyberpunk cracking foreign intelligence codes and now, of course, as a criminally minded phone hacker.

Many see PI’s as a civilian spy, a one-man band trying to make a meagre living from day-to-day routine enquiries waiting in anticipation of the ‘big job’.

So what exactly is a private investigator? The ex-police officer serving papers from the court in divorce proceedings? The retired person whose sense of curiosity and justice stirs them into action? Or the slick, quick, industrial-espionage specialist who continually tries to foil and outwit unscrupulous business people who are bent on financial and political power? Or the PI working for them to bring power by information at any price?

The truth of it is that all of the above and many other definitions fit into the world of the modern day Sherlock Holmes. The type of work carried out by investigators is as diverse as the people who take up the profession. As well as the usual, widely accepted and well-known matrimonial and divorce work, the modern investigator can be called upon to act as a professional witness, involved in gathering evidence to support legal applications put before the court. Sometimes the PI will be called upon to work in criminal investigations to help prove a theft or some other crime, and to gather evidence to be given to the police as part of a court case being presented before a judge or passed to a journalist to expose a wrong-doing. On the other hand, the PI may have to work for the defence of a suspected criminal, meticulously sifting through the evidence and challenging any inconsistencies or locating and interviewing possible defence witnesses.

As a Private Investigator I have been called upon to carry out investigations to locate and prove that firms or individuals are manufacturing or supplying goods without the license-holder’s consent. Retail and manufacturing companies have used the skills I learned as a soldier to work undercover or to carry out covert surveillance, gathering information to determine how their employees operate out of site of management, to identify individuals or teams involved in theft, using company equipment without consent or selling intellectual intelligence and testing the company’s security and systems. I have been deployed overseas working undercover to expose Letter-of-Credit fraud, child abduction and protection. I’ve lived in attics, under garden sheds, in disused properties, even in drains gathering video evidence to show that a claimant – although saying that he/she is unable to work – is in fact fit and healthy. I’ve met with Special Branch and handed information over to uncover future terrorists leaving the UK for training abroad.

You would be surprised at some of the trouble-shooting tasks investigators get involved in. The following is one such problem I was asked to solve

The Background:

A world financier should have arrived for a meeting in Dubai, but didn't show. Eleven million pounds sterling was also missing. His life and work partner had information that suggested that the financier was in his hometown of Beirut and probably being kept there by his family who were members of a well-known terrorist group.

The Task:

1. To locate the exact whereabouts of the financier.
2. To make contact with him.
3. To assist him to escape from the Country if he wished to.
4. To deliver him to a safe environment and ensure that he would be kept safe.
5. To locate the eleven million – believed to have been given to the terrorists for the purchase of arms.

Did I sort it?

Professional investigators have a code of confidentiality!

Private I and Tai Chi

I spend most of my life in conflict and fear. On any day I can be working alone, tracing people who do not want to be found, then serving them with Court Orders they do not want. Negotiating the release of abducted children. Carrying out close protection work and investigations for prominent people and companies, mediating in disputes and living in dangerous surrounding gathering evidence against organised crime.

My respite has always been martial arts. I'm in my mid-fifties, my mind is in my early twenties!! To keep myself healthy I practice Tai Chi everyday. Today I will spend the morning with one of my Tai Chi Masters and then later I will teach my Tai Chi Class.

As a former soldier and undercover operator I am sure that I have suffered from post traumatic stress and can honestly say that I believe that I would not have been as content and happy as I am without Tai Chi.

In essence, I realised a long time ago that life is difficult; will always be difficult. Believing that things will be 'better' when the kids leave home, when I leave home etc. etc. does not bring total harmony. There will always be difficulties so I just accept that and carry on enjoying the difficult times as much as the 'good' times. I just live, and I love it.