Nationwide surveillance company Mike India 5 have worked for just about every Insurance Company you could name in the UK and claim they have, in their 15 year history, saved their clients conservatively in excess of £40m in bogus claims. 99% of those cases were settled out of Court on production of a very telling piece of video evidence produced by the company.
Mile India 5 managing director and ex Special Services operative Anthony Heaton said: “Our business is dedicated to helping Insurers settle claims at their true level. Sometimes the claimants are genuinely incapacitated and we advise our clients accordingly, however the vast majority, as high as 90%, are found to be in some way fraudulent or at the very least over-stated”.
Anthony’s company has found a whole new area of business following the 2002 Employment Act and the company now receive instructions on a weekly basis from the HR Departments of all sizes of organisations with suspicious or unauthorised absence issues.
Says Anthony, “In a way it started by accident. I was first contacted by a neighbour who was HR Director for a large North West chemical company, he knew that my company operated in fraud detection work and asked if we could help. He was having problems with an employee who was regularly phoning in sick and was suspected of working “on the side” whilst claiming SSP.”
“It was clear that my neighbour was very worried about the situation and wanted to dismiss this man but felt powerless and afraid of the employee’s rights. We set up surveillance on the man and caught him on film on the very first day working with his brother building conservatories”.
The surveillance tape was shown to the employee during a pursuant disciplinary meeting. “Apparently the man’s jaw just fell open and he went very pale, within minutes he was pleading to be allowed to resign rather than have a gross misconduct charge on his record” says Anthony.
The company now receive instructions on all matters of absence, dishonesty and disloyalty issues and have a variety of investigative solutions to address such issues.
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“Our clients are amazed at the speed of resolution of absence issues. Employees who have been a pain in the side of even the most experienced HR manager can be dismissed swiftly, legally, and often without the expensive involvement of Lawyers” says Anthony.
With in excess of 15,000 cases in their video library, you would think Mike India 5 have seen it all and then some! But even now, cases come along which either shock, surprise or even amuse these hardened covert operators. It is not uncommon for romantic liaisons in lay-bys to be observed or midweek wheelchair bound claimants playing able-bodied rugby at the weekend.
