Category: General

Why Choose Surmount Investigations?
24 Jun
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Why Choose Surmount Investigations?

There’s a lot of private investigators out there. There’s a LOT just in the region of Newcastle Upon Tyne alone. So why pick Surmount Investigations? Why choose us to help with a problem you are faced professionally or personally over the wealth of other options available to you?

 

With this edition of our company blog we’re going to lay out the reasons why we’re the best option for you in clearer detail: Read more about Why Choose Surmount Investigations? …

Insurance Fraud – A Case Study
20 May
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Insurance Fraud – A Case Study

The policyholder had submitted a claim that his BMW 1 Series vehicle had been stolen at the end of March 2018. The initial contact centre staff member taking the details raised a concern and the claims management team put one of their investigators on it.

 

The investigator came back and notified the company that there was “nothing” suspicious about the claim, that they found the policyholder to be “entirely believable” and that they had “no concerns”. The insurance company weren’t convinced – the policyholder couldn’t locate his V5, his crime reference number for reporting it did not appear valid and he allegedly changed the location of where he said it was last parked once it was pointed out to him that there was heavy CCTV coverage in that area. Read more about Insurance Fraud – A Case Study …

Investigating Employee Concerns – A Case Study
13 May
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Investigating Employee Concerns – A Case Study

surveillance photographerOur Newcastle city centre based client got in touch with us after having Surmount recommended to them by a previous organisation we’d worked with, checking us out online and liking what they saw. They brought us in to consult with regards to concerns they had regarding one of their staff.

The staff member had a sales role within the company that required them to travel the region and meet with selected prospective customers that had been cultivated by the company’s engagement team. The prerequisite of the job was that a certain amount of sales calls per day was expected. Read more about Investigating Employee Concerns – A Case Study …

A Guide To Combating Harassment
06 May
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A Guide To Combating Harassment

In light of a recent news story in which Office for National Statistics data shows that in Sunderland alone, 3,203 cases of stalking, harassment or malicious communications were reported between October 2017 and September 2018, we have decided to re-up one of our most acclaimed guidance posts from the last eighteen months.

After all, it remains the case that more and more individuals around Tyne and Wear are coming to professional private investigation companies such as ours to help them try to evidence and deal with harassment as a civil matter in order to bring about an end to the distress it is causing in their lives.

Incidents of harassment, more so in the age of growing social media platforms, are increasing and police services are now de-prioritising dealing with it due to an ongoing staffing and funding crisis. Read more about A Guide To Combating Harassment …

Surviving Harassment – A Guest Blog
29 Apr
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Surviving Harassment – A Guest Blog

We continue to welcome guest submissions for our blog from solicitors, clients, HR specialists, professionals within the insurance industry and the like. If you or someone you know would like to submit an entry – or if you have an idea for a guest blog subject that is amenable to the type of work we do at Surmount – please drop us a line at enquiries@surmount-investigations.co.uk

With the permission of our ex-client / the original author who we helped on a difficult Harassment case in Newcastle Upon Tyne, we’re reposting her blog which received a large amount of attention when first published and which she uses as a platform to a) talk through her experience of working with us to bring her distress to an end and b) hopefully help other people out there who might be in a similar position.

[To protect her identity, and at her own request, all names have been changed]. Read more about Surviving Harassment – A Guest Blog …

Bail Affirmations – A Case Study
15 Apr
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Bail Affirmations – A Case Study

‘Bail Affirmations’ are a service we provide to solicitors and law firms frequently. We have assisted the CPS, the police and private clients with gathering evidence to confirm whether those awaiting trial pertaining to criminal matters are breaching the bail restrictions conditional to their release.

A solicitor client of ours who uses us regularly for process serving got in touch and explained that she was representing a father, ‘Darren’, in a rather acrimonious custody dispute matter. She said that the father’s ex-wife, ‘Leanne’, had been in a relationship with a violent drug user, ‘Brian’, who was recently released from police custody for an arrest involving taking/supplying drugs in front of the children of ‘Darren’ and ‘Leanne’ and beating them on two separate occasions. Read more about Bail Affirmations – A Case Study …

The Importance of Lawful Conduct In Private Investigation
01 Apr
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The Importance of Lawful Conduct In Private Investigation

We continually promote ourselves to law firms, insurers, businesses and private clients around Newcastle and North East as being an investigation and security consultancy service driven with the desire to help people whilst maintaining ethics and integrity in how we conduct our services that, rather sadly, many assume our industry doesn’t possess.

The media and pop culture in general play up the archetype of our profession as being the type that skulks in the shadows, doing all sorts of illegalities in order to acquire evidence against someone or some company.

It really isn’t like that at all. Read more about The Importance of Lawful Conduct In Private Investigation …

Make Sure Your Required Local Investigator IS Local.
18 Mar
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Make Sure Your Required Local Investigator IS Local.

More and more of late the field of professional investigation is being plagued by ‘national’ agencies who disingenuously pretend they have “regional reach” into – in our case – places like Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and the rest of the North East.

Routinely they are London based or thereabouts. There is no one main investigative head office or HQ and no hierarchy of investigators. It is simply a website that splinters off to suggest it is local to you dependent on where you’re searching for. The people behind this ‘agency’ might be based in Essex or wherever, but it’s imperative to them that you believe they are based in your city where ever you are. Read more about Make Sure Your Required Local Investigator IS Local. …

Divorce Surveillance – A Case Study.
04 Mar
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Divorce Surveillance – A Case Study.

Our client was a very affluent business owner who lived in Cornwall and had just saw the dissolution of her thirty year marriage to her husband, ‘Peter’.

As part of the finalising of the divorce, our client had a ‘contract’ drawn up with Peter through their respective solicitors in which in order for certain sums of money and assets to be agreed and handed over, Peter had to agree that money would not be used for specific purchases (i.e. buying property) and the assets could not be sold within a certain timeframe.

Peter signed and agreed to these stipulations in order to get quick access to our client’s money, cars, etc. Read more about Divorce Surveillance – A Case Study. …

NEW AVENUES FOR SUPPORT AGAINST HARASSMENT
11 Feb
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NEW AVENUES FOR SUPPORT AGAINST HARASSMENT

At Surmount Investigations we provide a comprehensive and bespoke support package to those who are suffering harassment in a multitude of different forms, which you can read more about here.

The most common type of support we offer to clients for this service relates to people who have exited a relationship and the ex-partner is causing them distress or in other respects a person has rejected someone’s affections and this person has turned nasty towards them as a result.

However, new changes in the law now reflect an acknowledgement that harassment, alarm and distress can occur to an individual within a relationship and legislation has now been expanded to define a whole raft of behaviours by your spouse or partner as a criminal act. Read more about NEW AVENUES FOR SUPPORT AGAINST HARASSMENT …