We met our Newcastle-based client as part of the free consultation service we offer to everyone. They explained that they felt they were being defrauded by one of their staff who had been off for 5 months with an injury they’d claimed they sustained at work.
The staff member (let’s call him ‘Keith’) was in the process of taking legal action against their employer and claimed that they could no longer walk around without sticks for support.
‘Keith’ was receiving full sick pay from our client who were in turn being fully cooperative with all litigation they were having levied against them – but rumours had started to circulate that there was nothing wrong with ‘Keith’ and he was actually working in another job, “cash in hand” in Gateshead.
The client(s) showed us a grainy photograph they had been provided by one of their employees of what was suspected to be ‘Keith’ at work at this new organisation. From this we ascertained that there was reasonable grounds for suspicion that fraud was being carried out and that our client was being affected by this because as we have laid out in a previous blog post, we are highly ethical in ensuring that we’re not just investigating “long term sickness” because the employer “wants shot of them”.
We went out and completed initial surveillance at the location of the “new job” and confirmed ‘Keith’ did indeed enter and leave this building – and not using the crutches he claimed he couldn’t live without now either! This didn’t give us the confirmation we wanted that he actually worked there though.
… So we went back the next day wearing a covert body camera and carrying a HUGE bunch of flowers and asked at reception for him. Sure enough ‘Keith’ bounded up the stairs into reception – without any crutches or means of support – wearing a company ID badge around his neck on a lanyard.
We got a lovely close up shot of his work ID badge as he came to collect flowers he had no understanding as to why he’d been sent them, especially at work. And we sent this footage and accompanying report back to a very happy client who immediately began proceedings against the individual.
If you have concerns about one of your employees, whether it be in terms of a fraudulent injury/sickness claim made against you or whether their professional work ethic is threatening your business’ reputation, contact us today at enquiries@surmount-investigations.com to see how we can help.