Can Private investigators prove drug dealing or benefit fraud?
Quite often we receive calls to our offices asking us to investigate drug dealing in Coventry & Warwickshire. Usually these calls come from clients that suspect someone involved with a family member that they suspect of peddling drugs such as cocaine or weed to the family member and would like them to be exposed so that a prosecution could result in the offender being taken to court and imprisoned, thus taking them off the street and cutting off the supply chain to their family member.
On the flip side, sometimes the client maybe looking to prove that a family member is taking drugs and wants evidence to prove this, usually in the way of Surveillance. From here they would produce our report to the family member who has no doubt been denying taking drugs, so that he cannot refute the evidence before him. Then they would look at ways to help him out of his situation once the denials have stopped.
So how do we prove drug dealing or drug taking?
The simple answer is that we can’t! Before you close the page please let me explain. When the police carry out surveillance for drug related crimes they are able to seize the substances found and have them analysed to prove one way or the other what they have found on their subjects of enquiry. Unfortunately as private investigators we don’t have such powers at our disposal. It could be argued that it was something legal such as sherbet or similar. A tall lie I agree but we can’t prove different.
What we can do though is obtain photographic and video evidence of the people they meet and all interactions which will allow you to make up your own mind as to what is going on. If you see video evidence of your son handing over a wedge of money through a car window and quickly exchange it for something that is quickly pocketed out of view, you can be quite confident it is not a bag of sweets, so you get a clear view as to what is going on. You can then pass our report on to the relevant authorities which may (or may not) then initiate an investigation of their own.
Can private investigators prove benefit fraud?
The short answer to this is yes! The long answer is yes we can but our evidence wont be used! Let me explain. The DWP (Department for work and pensions) carry out their own investigations and do not use evidence obtained from third party investigation teams. However, they will look at the evidence and if the Investigation team has carried out the surveillance professionally and the evidence is irrefutable this will fast track your case for them to carry out an investigation of their own. The DWP have a big backlog of enquiries to sift through but receiving a professional report will most likely get your case marked as priority. If you were to tip the DWP about your suspicions it would get in the back of the queue along with all the other tip offs.
You may well ask if that is the case is it worth me paying a private investigator to investigate your suspicion of someone working whilst claiming benefits? The answer is yes it is. Once you have paid for us to carry out the initial investigation the DWP’s investigation will be at no charge to you, so really all you are paying for is to get them to fast track the final investigation that you would not have got had you not instructed us. We know all this from experience over the years.
® M.R.Investigations July 2022.