This article is the third in a series on people with unusual jobs. You can also read about how to earn £150,000 a year as an ethical hacker and meet the people earning £35 an hour helping people grieve for their dead pets
Lockdowns led to a drop in fraud last year but insurance firms have warned that crime is back on the rise now the economy has opened back up.
Fraudulent injury claims can sometimes spell financial ruin for small businesses, but companies can find them difficult to disprove without evidence. To catch fraudsters out, firms will sometimes turn to private investigators.
Tom Peters, whose name has been changed, works for Reveal PI, a Birmingham-based investigations firm. He explained to Telegraph Money how he conducts surveillance, how the role is changing, and the misconceptions people have about his job.
What does a private investigator do?
We predominantly work in the corporate sector, and our clients include both small firms and large companies. We’re pushing more into the insurance market, and also work with animal welfare charities and the housing sector.
We find information for companies to help them make decisions. It’s all above board, all legal, using responsible techniques that we can use to answer questions they may be struggling with.
Their issues generally revolve around employee investigations, fraud issues, and injury and insurance claims. These can be crippling to a business – not just financially, but legally as well.
With injury claims, without any facts it’s very difficult to make accusations of fraud if you’re sceptical of an employee’s story. If there’s enough information to suggest that a claim may be false, we can put in place a plan to find the evidence to prove it.
We put together a proportional, justifiable investigation to conduct a small bit of surveillance, which involves us physically observing them and following their movements.
That involves a team of investigators using long lens camera equipment and covert body-worn equipment to physically follow the person discreetly, observe their movements and gather evidence.
It’s difficult to make accusations without actual information, so it’s about giving companies the reassurance that they can challenge a claim with evidence.
How does one become a private investigator?
People come into the job from all walks of life. Some of it is learned on the job, but there are also specific training courses that cover how to work alone and as part of a team. These courses teach communication techniques, and techniques on how to remain discreet, as well as camera work.
It’s really intense training, with skilled people. Basic skills and tools can give you a great position to start from, but all the real learning is done on the ground.
What misconceptions do people have about private investigators?
There are huge myths out there about what we do. Some people think investigators use unethical and unlawful techniques – that is not the case.
With data protection laws, investigators need to be very careful about how they operate. Most of the cases that we work on will be taken to court at some point, so obviously the evidence will be scrutinised, and will be discarded if it was unlawfully obtained.
There’s also a myth that all investigators are ex-police officers. We work with a very diverse group of people. It helps us to be discreet – we need our investigators to blend in. We’re not all a bunch of 6ft 4 guys wearing long trench coats and earpieces.
Is the industry regulated?
It’s unregulated as it stands. There has been talk about introducing regulation, but there’s been little progress. However, there are a number of accreditations, which require you to go through a panel interview process and show a level of experience, as well as qualifications.
In the long term, I’d like all PI firms to get to that standard, and for the industry to achieve some form of regulation.
How much do private investigators earn?
It depends entirely on whether they’re a contractor, whether they’re working for themselves, and whether they’re working for a corporate or individual client. Average wages can be from around £30 to £75 an hour for a contractor.
Investigators working with corporate clients can expect to earn in the region of around £65,000 to £80,000 a year.
Is the job dangerous?
People ask me this a lot. We have good safeguarding processes in place in our team. Everyone always has a direct line to a manager, for example.
There will always be a risk to people uncovering information about corrupt or dangerous people. But I believe that by following some basic protocols, even investigators working on their own can achieve a good level of safety.
