Many of our customers and visitors share with us, during our discussions, their questions about our profession. What are we actually doing? What are we for? What is our added value in a given procedure or legal action? Let's recognize it, a lot of mystery revolves around our profession and the actions we carry out, and a certain element of darkness (necessary in fact) surrounds our profession. We imagine ourselves in raincoats, smoking cigars, camouflaged behind the open pages of a newspaper, solving Hercule Poirot-style riddles. We are given extraordinary skills, using ultra-sophisticated gadgets like James Bond or driving a red Ferrari like a “Magnum”. In this article, PROCAP DETECTIVE opts for realism, and intends to present in a clear and illustrative manner some cases handled, the way in which they were resolved, and the added value that was brought to safeguard the interests of our customers. Far from clichés, we propose here to present real situations, concrete cases of missions solved by the PROCAP DETECTIVE firm. For reasons of confidentiality, however, the names of people, places, or any other identifying element will be kept silent.
A “double life” unmasked – Morality investigation
The context :
Madame X., a single widow, meets a man via a dating site. The man presents himself as single, without children, a managerial employee within a company. What follows is a romantic idyll and promises of marriage and a life as a couple filled with happiness and projects. Over the course of discussions, the couple plans to move closer geographically. So much so that our client decides to sell her house acquired during her first marriage, and to leave her job for a secondment in the region where her new partner lives. However, as the relationship progresses, serious doubts begin to appear about the sincerity of the new companion, and above all, about the veracity of his personal and professional situation: meetings postponed at the last minute; repeated and unexplained unavailability; suspicious evasions and inconsistencies multiplying over the course of the relationship, to which are added repeated requests for financial loans that Mr. makes to Mrs. In short, clues that do not mislead and which fuel legitimate doubts in our client's mind. Madame X contacts us and tells us her story, sharing her questions and doubts. She asks us to verify the information she has in order to enlighten her on the reality of the character, and allow her to make the right decisions accordingly.
Our investigation:
We take responsibility for the mandate given by our client and carry out the appropriate investigations in the specific case. We first administratively verify the personal and marital situation of the person concerned. We first discover that he is married. We supplement our administrative investigations with field surveillance and discreet checks, which lead us to note that the individual still lives as a couple, has a normal family life and maintains good relations with his wife, ruling out any plans for divorce. We also discover that the individual holds a job different from that known by our applicant. The hypothesis of a double life is confirmed day by day, our investigations also highlight stratagems and ingenious organization of the individual with a view to reconciling his family life and his relationship with our client: visit of the one in the absence of the other; organization of professional time; frequenting distant places so that the two women never meet; use of several profiles on social networks, etc. At the end of the mission, we report to our client on the results obtained, tell her our discoveries and the facts observed, which allowed her to disengage from the relationship and save his personal and property interests.
A debtor found: an acknowledgment of debt not honored
The context :
Mrs. Z. lends a friend the sum of 70,000 euros for the creation of a company. This sum comes from a family inheritance. The two friends establish an acknowledgment of debt under private signature, and agree on a repayment schedule. So far so good. The company is created and the first deadlines are honored, then one day the friend stops all repayments, claiming personal bankruptcy due to a scam of which she was the victim, having robbed her of all her savings. Understanding and sensitive to her friend's situation, our client initially adheres to her explanations and grants her a deferral of reimbursements until she returns to better fortune. But one day, by chance, Mrs. Z. learns that no complaint for fraud has been filed by her friend, and even worse, that her friend's bankruptcy is not based on any scam or fraud suffered, but is the result of lavish, purely personal expenses and unrestrained squandering (expensive vehicle, jewelry, hectic lifestyle, purchase of valuable goods, etc.). Dissatisfied and feeling duped, our client turns against her friend and asks her to give her the explanations and real reasons why she stopped all reimbursements. Our client gets no response from her friend, who, in the meantime, disappears without giving any news, erasing all traces of her from directories and social networks. At this time and with a view to taking her debtor to court and recovering the sum lent, Mrs. Z. asked us to determine her new address, which is essential to allow her to take legal action.
Our investigation:
We carry out an investigation for the purpose of locating the debtor's domicile. After ensuring that the debt is payable and the legitimacy of our client's request, we first check the civil status of the debtor in order to rule out any homonymy, or error about the person, then carry out open source intelligence collection and conduct a comprehensive scan of the information available on the debtor. Analysis of the information collected tells us that she has changed region, but does not allow us, at this stage, to obtain her precise address. In addition to changing her address, the debtor has obviously erased all traces concerning her. Using the information collected, we identify people likely to provide us with information and collect their statements, the cross-checking of which allows us to target a few potential addresses. We make discreet trips for verification purposes, and end up identifying the debtor's new address with great precision. We forward our report to our client's lawyer, who will continue the collection action against the debtor, which has now been located.
A house occupant in bad faith: a not so catastrophic state of health...
The context :
Mr. and Mrs. P., a young couple with children, buy a house through the auction. To acquire this property, they take out a traditional bank loan. On the day they move in and happy to start a new life, they discover that the house they have just bought is still occupied by the previous defaulting owner, who refuses to leave the premises under the pretext of a poor condition. deteriorated health which does not allow him to move. Armed with the award judgment, serving as a title to the property, the conciliatory couple agrees to give the occupant time to organize their move. As the days passed and seeing no action from the occupant, the couple ordered him to leave the house. However, he continues to enjoy the property free of charge and does not seem to have decided to leave the premises, or at the very least, no concrete action is taken in this direction, which would demonstrate his good faith. Distraught in the face of the occupant's procrastination, the couple appealed to the execution judge to order the immediate release of the house and the ordering of the occupant to leave the premises. In his defense, the former owner claims a catastrophic state of health which does not allow him to organize his move and leave the house. He produced during the debates and in support of his defense, a medical certificate stating reduced mobility (difficulty moving, reduced physical capabilities), as well as statements from third parties describing him as fragile and weakened. Suspecting manifest bad faith and on the recommendation of their lawyer, the couple asked us to confirm or deny the declarations of the former owner regarding his personal condition, particularly with regard to his mobility and physical capabilities. , and to objectively verify its reality.
Our investigation:
We take charge of the investigation and carry out investigations such as surveillance and discreet shadowing. We follow the individual over several days in his movements and activities, and highlight numerous contradictions and inconsistencies between the situation described in the procedure (presenting a diminished person) and the factual reality, which rather testifies to the possession of full capacities. physical and motor. We thus discover that the person concerned is moving normally; that he exercises a regular professional activity and has a completely normal life, and what is more is not marked by any particular handicap. Our findings will report daily activities of mundane normality (business travel, leisure outings, sporting activities, normal life). At the end of our mission, sending us a complete report recounting the objective facts that we witnessed. In support of our material findings, the execution judge, noting the bad faith of the occupant and the normality of his state of health, rejects the latter's requests for delay and sentences him to immediate release without house deadlines.
A collector’s vehicle found: a needle in a haystack….
The context :
A company asks us to carry out investigations to find a collector's vehicle that it owns. The vehicle was loaned five years ago to a person for a business trip and who has since disappeared without ever returning the vehicle. Our client informs us that the vehicle has not been the subject of any resale on a parallel market, or undergone any transformation with a view to resale, but that it would certainly be stored in a secret location, such as a garage, box or property, which would explain why it was never found by the authorities contacted and the research undertaken by our client himself. The vehicle would probably be somewhere in France, and more precisely in the Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur region, a region where the tenant used to stay for his business needs. Our clients have filed a complaint for breach of trust against the lessee of the vehicle. However, failing to find the vehicle and the alleged perpetrator, the authorities' investigation remained at a standstill.
Our investigation:
We take charge of the investigation and carry out appropriate investigations, which lead us to carry out various checks and surveillance of targeted sites (warehouses, garages, private parking). We also contacted specialist resale channels and interviewed a few dozen people, which allowed us to gather a body of increasingly conclusive and precise information on the fate of the vehicle and its whereabouts. Our mission results in the precise location of the vehicle and its discovery. In perfect condition, we discovered that the vehicle had never been used for five years, and that it was sleeping in a private garage, without the owner of said garage, in good faith, suspecting the fraudulent origin of the vehicle. . We assist our client in referring the matter to the authorities (gendarmerie), who, in support of our conclusions, seize the vehicle and return it to the client. The only downside is that the alleged perpetrator, having left the national territory, cannot be found to this day….
Alimony: a fictitious state of impecuniosity
The context :
Mrs. N. and Mr. G. are married and have three children. After a few years of living together, the couple separated and divorced. The divorce judgment fixes the residence of the children at the mother's home and grants the father a right of visitation and accommodation, making it his responsibility to contribute to the maintenance and education of the children (pension eating). Over time, noticing that the father pays this contribution very irregularly, the mother is forced to put in place enforcement measures which will more or less prosper. After some time and procedure, the father definitively ceases to pay alimony, even though he is still required to do so. By request, the father petitions the family affairs judge (JAF) requesting the complete lifting of alimony, and justifies his request by claiming a state of impecuniosity due to the absence of resources due to loss of employment. The family affairs judge, sensitive to the father's arguments, supports his request and, noting his insolvency, exempts him from the contribution until he returns to a better situation. The mother, suspecting her ex-husband of bad faith, appeals the decision and asks us to verify the professional situation of her ex-husband, whom she suspects has sufficient resources allowing him to assume his obligations normally. parental.
Our investigation:
In coordination with our client's lawyer, we take charge of her investigation and carry out the requested investigations. We first carry out an inventory of the father's actual situation, and establish the elements of his lifestyle. We discover that he has rebuilt his life with a new partner and that he now lives as a couple. We determine, on the basis of our findings, the constituent elements of his personal charges and expenses. Thus, our investigation reveals numerous discrepancies: exaggerated rent amount, personal charges, if not fictitious, at least increased; receipt of income from a business operated in a foreign country with which the person concerned has ties, and inconsistent lifestyle with a state of impecuniosity: substantial expenses, comfortable lifestyle, purchase of expensive vehicles, receipt of income , etc...We also discover that the new partner of the person concerned, with whom he lives, carries out a professional activity, owns real estate, and has resources which make her financially independent from her partner. We supplement our investigations with field monitoring. These lead us to discover that the person concerned carries out an undeclared paid activity, the reality and regularity of which we establish. At the end of the mission, we draw up a complete report and send it to our client's lawyer, who includes it in his conclusions to appeal the decision. The judge supports the mother's claims and orders the father to pay alimony.
On sick leave, an employee takes the opportunity to work in another company
The context :
A company, one of whose employees is on sick leave, suspects him of not respecting the obligations inherent to sick leave, in particular regarding respecting exit times, but more seriously still, of taking advantage of the stop to work for another, non-competing company. The applicant company is asking us to confirm or refute these suspicions, and if necessary establish proof in order to take any appropriate measures with regard to the offending employee, whose prolonged absence causes financial harm. as well as in terms of the internal organization of the company.
Our investigation:
We carry out investigations such as surveillance and discreet shadowing for the purpose of circumstantial findings. Over a period of one week and exclusively during usual working hours, we discreetly monitor the employee's movements and establish proof that he does not respect the outing requirements, but that he also goes in a manner regularly at the headquarters of another company, in which he exercises a professional activity. We report to the applicant the results of our investigation, and in support of our findings, our client requests an employer medical check-up, to which the employee, absent at home, does not submit. The employee is invited to return to work, without success. Summoned, the employee is confronted with his responsibilities and ordered to explain his actions. A disciplinary procedure is opened against the employee, who resigns and leaves the employing company.
Suspicion of fraud: an abusive inheritance commission narrowly avoided
The context :
Mr. B., an elderly man, widowed and living alone, contacted us one day with the story of a strange letter received at his home. A company presenting itself as a genealogical study tells him that he is the lucky heir to a comfortable inheritance, but that the revelation of this inheritance is subject to the signing of an “Inheritance Revelation” agreement, the rate of which is commission seems exorbitant to him. Clearly, he could only know the nature of the inheritance and the identity of the deceased if he consented to the payment of a percentage of the inheritance to the genealogy society. There followed numerous telephone exchanges with various interlocutors, who solicited and urged him to sign the inheritance disclosure contract. Questioned about the approach and the insistence of his interlocutors, Mr. B. asks us to confirm the reality of this information, the real identity of his interlocutors and the seriousness of the approach.
Our investigation:
We take charge of our client's request and carry out the ordered investigations. We first carry out research into the so-called genealogy society, whose members we identify, identify the organization and verify its legal existence. We discover that it is not a genealogy study strictly speaking, but a real estate agency, with multiple ramifications, incidentally carrying out genealogy operations, as well as other activities. We discover that none of the members is affiliated with a genealogy organization or union, but that this activity is carried out incidentally. Even more surprising, we come into contact with people who have dealt with this agency and collect their testimonies in order to verify their seriousness and probity, which testimonies support our presumptions and depict a company with methods and processes that are otherwise illegal. , at least highly doubtful. In parallel with these verification operations, we carry out an inheritance investigation and identify the client's parents likely to leave them an inheritance. We thus discover that a distant uncle of our client recently died, and that the rules of succession establish that our client was, under the rules of succession, the beneficiary. We carry out a heritage survey in order to estimate the nature and value of the inheritance, and identify the notarial office in charge of the inheritance. We send a report detailing all of our investigations to our client, who, with the help of a lawyer, contacts the notary and begins the settlement of the inheritance legally vested in him. Our investigation allowed our client a substantial saving, by allowing him to receive the expected inheritance without having to pay a significant part of it to any genealogical study for a supposed revelation of inheritance.
Fuel theft: trucks siphoned off by unscrupulous employees
The context :
A company specializing in road transport, employing more than fifty people and having a large fleet of heavy goods vehicles, has noticed suspicious losses of fuel. Strong suspicions arise about potential intrusions from outside the establishment, or even about siphoning suffered when trucks are in transit. After some time of research and verification, and after having ruled out the hypothesis of intrusion or thefts suffered externally, the employer begins to put forward the hypothesis of thefts taking place internally, and is moving more in addition to the thesis of theft by employees of the company. The employer then decides to install surveillance cameras and introduce new traffic rules on the site. Despite these measures, more and more quantities of fuel continue to disappear, without the reason being clearly identified. The employer asks us and explains the situation he is facing. He mandates us to identify the causes of fuel losses, and if necessary and if a situation of obvious theft is discovered, to provide proof with a view to filing a complaint.
Our investigation :
After an inspection of the site and supervision of the legal conditions of our intervention, we implement discreet human surveillance measures over several days, and more precisely during the night, identified slots during which the alleged thefts would take place. The results of our observations implicate certain unscrupulous employees, and reveal a sophisticated modus operandi as well as meticulous organization. Indeed, we discover that certain employees enter the structure during the night, and, taking advantage of a shift rotation, carry out passages with their personal vehicle in the immediate vicinity of heavy goods vehicles. These passages, frequent within the structure and justified by its organization, never alerted management. Benefiting from a space not covered by surveillance cameras and hidden by the ambient darkness, employees take the opportunity to siphon off the tanks of parked trucks using a pipe feeding jerrycans placed in the trunk of their personal vehicles . The maneuver, furtive and discreet, was never suspected or detected by management. After a few days of observation, we drew up a report of findings and sent the video captures showing the theft to the employer, which allowed him to file a complaint against the offending employees, proceed with their dismissal and completely rethink the security of the site.
An extramarital affair exposed
The context :
Mr. X and Mrs. Y are married and have two children. For some time now, the marital relationship has been falling apart and the couple is struggling. Mr. Mr. . Mr. Upon this announcement from the husband, the wife refuses the divorce plan and threatens the spouse with a long and expensive procedure. Mr. He tells us that he wants an amicable divorce, but that his wife, whom he accuses of bad faith, categorically refuses this option, while continuing her extra-marital adventures. He asks us to provide evidence of his wife's wrongful actions, and thus, failing to request a divorce for fault, to use the evidence to get his wife to accept the amicable separation.
Our investigation:
We take charge of our client's case and carry out discreet human surveillance. The legal framework of adultery requires proof of sufficiently serious and repeated facts, we follow the lady on her travels for several days. We discovered that the person concerned was indeed having an extra-marital relationship with a work colleague, confirming the husband's suspicions, and constituted proof of the incriminated facts. Our report will report on restaurant dinners, romantic walks, nights spent in a hotel with the lover, gestures and emotional contacts of a romantic nature, i.e. a set of sufficiently substantiated facts establishing the reality of an extra romantic relationship. -conjugal. As required by law, we forward the report and all photographs to our client's attorney who files a fault divorce petition.
A bogus CV: fictitious diplomas and career path
The context :
A company contacted us because it was having serious difficulties with a managerial employee. This, in addition to creating a harmful climate within the structure (harassment of colleagues, gossip spread, disloyalty on social networks, etc.), presents suspicious gaps in the skills required for the position occupied: lack of knowledge of software specific and expected professions, detrimental incompetence, inconsistencies, in short skills incompatible with the career path and qualifications prevailed when hired. Over time, serious doubts arise about the reality of the employee's professional background and qualifications. The company asks us to check the employee's CV in order to take any appropriate measures (dismissal or termination of contract for willful misconduct).
Our investigation:
We carry out investigations and verify the elements presented in the employee's CV. For audition purposes, we go to the various educational and training establishments listed on the CV. In addition, we identify former employers and conduct interviews when necessary. The results of our investigations reveal multiple arrangements with reality, even notorious lies and falsifications. Thus, our investigation highlights the non-existence of certain diploma titles, never offered by the establishments in question, but also of training courses that have just started but never completely validated. In addition, we discover that some employers are fictitious and the professional careers, when they are proven, present no less exaggerations in terms of their duration, but also in terms of the grade, function or position occupied. We submit a complete report to our client, who dismisses the employee for willful misconduct.
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