HCEO
Investigations
For business owners, landlords and the professionals who act for them, across the south of England.
Something has happened inside the business and it is not yet a matter for a solicitor, or the solicitor needs to know what actually happened before anyone can act. I come to the business and find out. The evidence goes into a file that your lawyer, your insurer or the police can act on.
I spent six years investigating crime for Hampshire police, two of them on a Priority Crime Team. Since 2021 I have been an Authorised High Court Enforcement Officer, and I am a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Most investigative work in the south is done by former officers trading as private investigators, or by a paralegal inside a law firm. It is a different conversation when the person asking the questions is an officer of the High Court.
- Theft or fraud inside a business
Stock, cash, a supplier nobody has met, a bookkeeper who never takes a holiday. I find out what has gone and who knew before anyone is tipped off.
- A partner or a director gone
Fallen out, fallen ill, or died, and the business still has to trade. I carry it through the weeks that matter on the directors' instructions.
- Checking who you are dealing with
A partner, a buyer, a supplier or a senior hire. The public record checked against the story, and a short note on what I would ask.
- The police have said it is a civil matter
You reported it and got a crime number, or nothing at all. I write the file the police did not, so that it can go back to them or on to a solicitor.
- Police liaison
A written request to the police, on HCEO LTD letterhead, in the form an investigator recognises, addressed to the right desk.