All

Derbyshire

Investigation

Agency

For small and medium sized businesses

We offer a complete investigation service for all forms of workplace crime and malpractice which is complementary to or in place of any contemplated police involvement.

Businesses are today subjected to a vast range of threats and risks, from employee theft to external fraud, copyright infringement and product counterfeiting. Whilst the bigger companies will operate their own internal departments to combat such threats the smaller business faced with a potential or ongoing problem will more likely look towards the police for a "cost-free" resolution. Businesses that go down this route almost invariably come to regard it as a mistake.

As a business we believe you should be focussed on these objectives:

Regrettably the criminal justice system is unlikely to effectively deliver any of these objectives.

If you have previously been involved in a police investigation or know someone else who has, you may feel that once police are involved all control over the direction of the investigation is lost, its extent, its speed and even its very continuance. Businesses often complain that they are not given sufficient information on the progress of the investigation, that they are constrained from making any parallel investigations, that they are inhibited from taking remedial personnel decisions whilst matters are "sub-judice". Business victims find they are obliged to provide the Crown Prosecution Service with whatever further information they require, whether it currently exists or not, and regardless of the expense of obtaining it. Businesses often feel they should have more say in the course of action the CPS decide to take. Even if a court case results the outcome is often unsatisfactory or even perverse. Far too many companies who are victims of crime find themselves effectively "in the dock". Many businesses find that what they thought would be a cost free service to them as taxpayers ends up costing many thousands of pounds with management and other key staff required to devote large amounts of time to gathering evidence, making police statements and attending court.

The system is such that the officer who takes your initial complaint, who investigates, who arrest suspects, who charges and case builds, and finally who case manages, are very likely to all be different people. Whilst all these officers will, as individuals, be capable and dedicated they will be juggling your case with many others and constantly being allocated new ones. They will be under relentless pressure to do just enough to be able to sign off on their part and shuffle the case across to the next desk in the system. There is no real "ownership" of any case and the unfortunate result is that this inhibits any culture of "pride in a job well done". Nobody really sees the full picture and nobody takes responsibility when things go wrong.

Both principals of the agency have recent experience of investigating and case building such matters and can perform all the tasks necessary to achieve a result, all the way from initial detection to file building and a successful prosecution in the courts. We take pride in our professional skills and regard a complete and ongoing commitment to a proper result nothing less than a minimum requirement.

We will investigate your problem just as much or as little as you want, in the direction you want, at your speed, and under your control. We will charge you for the time we spend on your case up to a limit or a series of limits, agreed in advance. While working on your case we will do so to the exclusion of all others and you will receive our undivided attention. We have a simple charging structure, by the hour, by the day or by the week. We may charge mileage if travel involved is excessive or travel outside the county is required. If we incur costs on your behalf we will charge them at cost. We work to the criminal standard of evidence gathering and procedure so should you wish at the conclusion of the investigation to resort to the criminal law we will provide you with a full file of evidence, obtained and exhibited where necessary fully compliant with court requirements that you will be able to hand to the CPS in furtherance of your complaint. We would however urge all clients to think very carefully indeed before going the criminal prosecution route. The civil courts will in most cases provide a much better resolution of your problem should court proceedings really be necessary or desirable.

Our objectives are your objectives. And by using our services you can guarantee that costs are finite and under control. Your control.