HCEO
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.
A new partner, a buyer for the business, a supplier offering terms that look too good, a senior hire with a thin history. I check the public record against the story: Companies House, the court lists, the insolvency register, the press, the people they say they have worked with. I read the deal the way an investigator reads a statement, find what is missing, and tell you what I would want to know before signing.
You get a short written note on what checks out, what does not, and what I would ask.
The same check answers the older question of whether a debt is worth pursuing. Eight years of enforcing judgments have shown me what people turn out to own, and which routes find it.
Investigations
- 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.
- 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.