Business embraces world of spies

by Nic Rigby
BBC News, Norwich

Gadgets are used by private investigators

Private detectives are traditionally seen as inhabiting the shadowy world of cheating husbands and estranged wives.

But nowadays they are more likely to work for businesses, helping to uncover false insurance claims which cost the industry £20m a week.

Investigators Marleymanor, based near Newport Pagnell, Bucks, say more often than not they rely on old fashioned surveillance, following people on foot.

Dave Thomas, who runs Marleymanor along with its corporate entertainment offshoot Spy Games, said: "One of the big areas is insurance and there are a lot of investigation companies offering these services."

'Pinhole camera'

In one case Mr Thomas investigated a man was claiming sickness benefit from his firm.

"The employer suspected he was working elsewhere as a cabby when he should have been at work," said Mr Thomas.

The moonlighting cabby claimed sickness benefit for a bad back

The firm put the man under surveillance and found he was indeed working as a taxi driver.

They used a female worker to go up to the cab with heavy bags, weighed beforehand by the investigators, who were covertly filming the taxi driver.

"She says to the cabby: 'Would you mind giving me a hand with these bags. They are quite heavy.'

"He says: 'Of course I will'. And he is seen to lift up the bags and we've got it all on film using a pinhole camera in a briefcase."

Private investigators are becoming common in business life as chief executives hire them to provide detailed homework on competitors as well as helping to plug leaks in the organisation.

Marleymanor investigated the case of Benji 'the bin man' Pell

In one case that hit the headlines in 1997, Marleymanor was hired by the Co-op when it was the target of a £1.2bn hostile takeover bid by corporate raider Andrew Regan.

The bid collapsed when Mr Thomas's firm filmed Mr Regan in a car park receiving internal Co-op documents from a then senior executive of the Co-op.

In another case, Mr Thomas was hired by an accountancy firm to find out how a man called Benjamin Pell was able to bring so many confidential stories about celebrities to newspapers.

"In this case we were called in to investigate how private documents relating to a very well-known pop star got into Mr Pell's hands," said Mr Thomas.

"We were following him for two or three days when at about midnight he gets in his battered old car, drives to a business and jumps over a fence and grabs the bags of rubbish."

Dave Thomas also organises Spy Games for groups of people

Mr Pell, who later became known as Benji the Binman, was targeting the rubbish of firms which had famous clients.

In November 1999, he was convicted of stealing waste from a London law firm, which counted Jonathan Aitken and James Hewitt among its clients.

When he was arrested, police confiscated a £2,500 cheque from News International - owners of the News of the World and the Sunday Times.

The issue is highlighted on Inside Out on BBC1 in the East at 1930 GMT on Monday.