Insurance Fraud Surveillance

Premiums have increased due to false or exaggerated personal injury fraud claims, covering home, motor and business accident policies. In some cases claimants would suffer a genuine accident that was not their fault, but then exaggerate their injuries or the time it has taken them to recover. As an Investigator and surveillance specialist I believe it is very important that these claims should be validated. Insurance fraud affects us all and I believe we should all play a roll in ensuring that cheats are found out, after all why should I pay more because of them. At the same time the genuine claimants should be looked after.

As surveillance specialists who regularly conduct observations on claimants a true account of the claimants day to day activities are reported and at no time should it be advantageous or disadvantageous to our client or the subject. In the old days some poor private investigators would entrap the subject but I am glad to say that the industry has changed and most of these cowboys have been weeded out of the industry.

Also during an investigation you should not create any circumstances which may encourage or enforce any persons subject of an enquiry to engage in any activity which may be harmful to their interests and at all times you should perform your duties in a lawful and ethical manner.

I believe when conducting surveillance operation 2 investigators should be utilized particularly when conducting mobile surveillance. It still amazes me when I receive an inquiry from a client and then when discussing surveillance they only want to pay for one private investigator. It is amazing that there are still some, thankfully not many clients out there who believe that professional surveillance can be undertaken by using one investigator. How can this be achieved when taking into consideration Health and Safety, Human Rights issues, and at the same time trying to ensure you are not compromised? There are no guarantees on surveillance no matter how many well trained investigators are deployed but the risk is greatly reduced when the required private investigators are used on operations. When operations are conducted with the purpose of assessing the capabilities of the subject it is vital that these are carried out in a discreet manner and by taking cognisance of the relevant legislation.