A typical day for a private investigator takes them into a world of mystery and intrigue. From fraud to corporate theft - this is a glimpse of how they catch the ordinary men and women who set out to lie, cheat or steal. Carly Gibbs reports.
It's the middle of the day and Brent Bourgeois is sweating in a balaclava.
He moves soundlessly through the bush; hunting his prey.
Watching from afar, he is nervous but composed.
He is quiet bar his heartbeat.
He is unmoving bar his eyes.
He is invisible.
"To get there, I was seen by multiple people," Bourgeois says. "Then I had to suddenly become invisible. It was successful. I saw what I needed to see.
"I had lots of cover to hide around and then I had to get out of there again, which is just as difficult as getting in."
Bourgeois, a former police detective, is a private investigator and owns Vestigo Investigations.
He is reluctant to divulge any more details about this case but says surveillance constitutes a big part of his workload.
While it is undoubtedly nerve-racking work, he is composed when recalling this story.
To protect his identity, he has asked not to be photographed.
Bourgeois' appearance is far from the decades-old private investigator stereotype: a moustached figure in a trench coat and black hat, hiding under the windowsill with a pair of binoculars.
Today's "P.I." is fighting to overcome the old stereotype, but the profession is still as relevant as ever; the ability to uncover information in any form is a hot commodity for clients, who range from insurance firms and lawyers to suspicious spouses.
While police have separate surveillance teams, as a private investigator, Bourgeois does everything. "Because it's my business, I get involved in every part of the investigation. I'm often the one sitting behind the wheel of a car following someone."
And there is always a risk he will be found out.
"Those sorts of things happen occasionally when you're dealing with a very paranoid subject. Someone who's nervous about the prospect of being followed because they know they're up to no good. There are occasions the police will turn up because a nosy neighbour has spotted a car sitting in the street for a long period of time and quite rightly so. We just produce our identification, we don't disclose exactly what we're doing."
Today, Bourgeois is wearing smart business clothes. Other days, he'll dress like a construction worker.
A camouflaged sleuth. He is a chameleon. And he must always stay level-headed.
Bourgeois' speciality is investigating fraud and theft. Most of his clients are from outside Tauranga and are wealthy corporates.
Some companies are spending "tens of thousands-plus" trying to catch people out.
There are eight PIs in the Western Bay registered with the New Zealand Institute of Professional Investigators.
To work as a private eye, you must obtain a licence from the Ministry of Justice.
There are no specific educational requirements; however, police and investigative training is preferred.
Bourgeois, who was in the police force for 14 years, says his biggest fraud case as a PI involved more than $100,000 and was a result of false accounting. The person responsible created phantom contractors that were being paid and the money was going into the pocket of the employees.
"We caught them by going through all the paperwork and obviously establishing that these companies never existed. We did a lot of background work on them with the information that they had on record."
In these tough economic times, dishonesty is on the increase, and the police don't have the resources to cope with every fraud case that comes across their desks.
"People learn quite quickly when they make the complaint it's not going to be dealt with for quite some time," says Bourgeois.
Many employers who don't want to wait for the police employ a private investigator, costing between $100 to $150 an hour, depending on the work involved.
"We're able to pick it up and do what we can do for them; build the case," Bourgeois says.
"The client can give it to the police and they can move it forward.
"I've heard of employers trying to do their own investigations not knowing how to gather the evidence, not knowing how to interview properly and they come out at the wrong end. They don't do it properly.
"They should've got someone professional and independent to do it, otherwise they end up paying money in the employment court."
He tells the story of being assigned a job in a Bay of Plenty town a year ago.
The owner of the business was concerned one of his staff was selling the company's product on the side.
"He asked us to follow that person ... and they were indeed selling that product belonging to the company.
"It was just straight-out theft. A little bit of fraud involved in the paperwork, but we managed to get very good eye-witness evidence to support their suspicions and the person was ultimately dismissed from their job and it went to a police prosecution."
As with many employers, James (not his real name) didn't like to accuse his staff, but had growing suspicions something was amiss.
The owner of a large Bay of Plenty business knew one of his staff members was stealing and was beginning to suspect others were in on it too.
He hired Bourgeois who, for a fortnight, followed and covertly filmed employees. The men could not deny their actions when confronted with video surveillance.
"In today's employment law, it is difficult to take people through the dismissal process without evidence. If it's circumstantial it's very hard to prove in court," James says.
Up until this year, P.I.s have not been allowed to take paparazzi-style footage. Most of their work is done through observation and note taking, interviewing and document investigation.
A Bay of Plenty resthome manager used Bourgeois to install a hidden camera and catch a thieving employee. The woman was taking $10 and $20 notes out of residents' wallets.
She was caught on film within 48 hours.
While it had cost the resthome "10 times" as much as what the woman took, the manager said it was worth it.
The evidence protected the employer against a possible personal grievance claim when the woman was fired.
The work of a private detective is not that different to the work of the police, except their powers are more limited as they they do not have the powers to search or arrest.
Bourgeois has been a private investigator since 1999. He was medically discharged from the police as a result of an injury.
"This is the next best thing to what I know and what I love."
He has been kept busy of late with insurance fraud work and has worked for all the major insurance companies.
"Over the last 15 years, insurance fraud has really increased.
"Some insurance companies have got their own investigative team in-house that deals with it. Then the rest get external investigators involved, like ourselves. We deal with all manner of claims from lost rings through to multimillion-dollar liability losses, fires, burglaries, theft of vehicles and so forth.
"It's quite often revealed through our investigation, there is no fraud ... but unfortunately there is heck of a lot of insurance fraud and fraud across the board."
Western Bay police commander Inspector Mike Clement says police must prioritise their work and fraud is no exception.
At present, there are two complaints of fraud awaiting investigation in the Western Bay. Clement says fraud can be an "unusual" allegation to investigate and private investigators are often enlisted to establish whether or not there is evidence.
"If there is evidence, then those matters are generally handed to police to evaluate and, if appropriate, prosecute. Whether or not any prosecution is successful is dependent, as it always is, on the evidence put before the court."
According to crime statistics for the Bay of Plenty, there were 687 cases of fraud last year, compared with 490 in 2008. The most common kind of fraud was obtaining by deception.
Bourgeois assists lawyers with litigation cases and people who need their case helped by the gathering of evidence. As a rule, he will not do defence work.
The other thing he won't do is domestic inquiries.
"If I was to establish a fact about someone and give it to the third party, my client, I lose control and I don't know what might result.
"One day I predict information given to a third party in a domestic situation will turn into a major problem. Tracing someone, finding someone, and the next thing you know you've got a serious assault, even murder on your hands."
The first signs your partner is having an affair are black and white.
The owner of Angel Private Investigations, Vivienne Jarvis, says if your partner deletes their text messages, has their cellphone glued to their side, changes their appearance, and is suddenly overly affectionate or completely non-affectionate - they could be cheating.
"It's very sad, you sit doing your surveillance and then you have to ring somebody and say: 'Look, I'm sorry you were right'. You get stunned silence, tears ... it's awful," she says.
Jarvis, who believes she was the Bay's first female detective, has been a private investigator since 2003.
She specialises in catching wayward lovers out.
With a bob of blonde hair, hot pink fingernails, and glittery jewels on her fingers, she changes her appearance several times a week.
"I change my hair and change the car, I have put a wig on," she says, referring to her surveillance work.
"Instead of a blonde in a silver car, you are a short dark-haired woman in a red car.
"We have a few vehicles so if you are watching a particular property there's not a silver Mercedes parked three days in a row at a particular place. I tie up my hair. I mean women can do all sorts of things. When you're parked up in an urban place, people will generally ignore you but when you're in a rural place, you try to fit into the landscape. I'll be in a ute, have a clipboard, orange jacket and vaguely looking around."
Although people who suspect their partner is cheating want proof, they hardly need it - Jarvis says the suspicion is confirmed in "100 per cent" of cases.
"When people ring me, I'm usually the last resort. They are usually very anxious and nervous when they ring."
Her clients are an equal split of men and women.
Her job is to follow the client's partner, sometimes early in the morning or late at night.
"If they are supposed to be at the gym, are they at the gym? If they are supposed to be at work, are they at work? If their partner goes away for the weekend, where are they?"
The business can have several clients at any one time, with some as far away as Whakatane.
To catch someone out she needs as much information as possible from the partner who suspects their other half is cheating.
"We have a face-to-face meeting and I'll ask for recent photographs, car registration, all those details."
Is there ever a risk people will misuse the information?
"Yeah, I always say 'what are you going to do?', particularly women.
"They want proof because most people have confronted their partner and he'll deny it. 'No, no, I'm not cheating. I love you' and he'll deny it. They'll lie through their teeth. I'm saying males here, but it applies equally to both.
"All of my people have said 'If you don't want me, tell me and we'll work it out. We'll split up. But 'oh, no, no sweetheart. I love you'. He's sworn that nothing is going on."
She knows of people who have placed GPS devices and recording devices in their partner's car, and "spyware" on their computer to monitor emails and websites. But as a private investigator, she has to be careful not to breach privacy laws.
Has she been discovered while undercover?
"I've never been caught out that I'm aware of. When I'm on rural surveillance, you'll get farmers who will hop over the fence and say 'are you lost, dear?'
I just say 'I'm fine,' and they probably think I'm having an affair and waiting for somebody. You usually have a little cover story."
Somewhere out there, someone right now, could be pretending to be you.
Former private investigator Don Munro knows the value of protecting your confidential information.
Munro, of Tauranga, owns Private Document Destruction, where he disposes of six tonnes of private documents a week. Munro has an $80,000 commercial shredder and every week collects six tonnes of confidential documents from lawyers, doctors and business people for disposal. His shredder can get rid of a tonne of paper in an hour.
He says more people need to be aware of protecting their personal details and recommends every household shreds their bills, letters and envelopes as identity theft is a real risk.
While it might sound over the top to law-abiding citizens, Munro says some people are not against going through rubbish bins.
"Of course they will. How do you think fraud is committed?"
These documents can easily be used to obtain accounts through finance institutions and/or hire-purchase stores, where you are asked to hand over two letters that state your name and address. Likewise, there are people who will attempt to intercept your credit card and cheque book in the mail.
"Honest people don't consider it a problem. Until it happens to someone you know, it doesn't exist."
Munro, who was in the police force for almost 17 years, says it's not just the rich who are targeted either. His advice is collect your credit cards and cheque books from the bank. Don't have them posted.
He also advises you have passwords and pin numbers for everything possible.
Just like the super-hero mum in the movie The Incredibles, private investigator Paula Naude is forced to hide a lot about herself, including where she lives.
The 39-year-old mother of two reached the rank of detective captain in the South African Police and is Swat and weapon trained.
She trained with the FBI and specialised in psychologically motivated crimes; such as serial rapes, serial murders and paraphilia.
Prior to moving to New Zealand in 2008, she trained police officers and holds a diploma in policing and a BA with majors in criminology and psychology .
On a Thursday morning, she opens her door looking the consummate professional in a pressed white shirt, grey trousers and hair swept back in a bun.
One of her two children is home watching Madagascar in her pink pyjamas in front of the gas fire.
It's a typical family home, with no inkling that the mum who lives here doesn't have your average job.
Naude set up the business Naude and Associates in Tauranga last year and travels the country as a private investigator. She goes undercover frequently.
"If you're holding observation or surveillance on an open yacht at night, you might wear something that's dark and, if it requires a balaclava, you would use that. It just depends on the environment you're going into."
The bulk of her work is fraud related.
"It's a real sign of the times when you get spikes in any type of fraud ... I think in some circles it hasn't ever really been seen as the same kind of crime as if you committed murder for example, but crime is crime," she says.
From her dining room table, she says that someone who is altering documents will generally do it out of desperation. But the longer it's not picked up, it frequently turns to greed.
She has 11 cases that have arrived in the last week-and-a-half.
Cases can take anywhere from 10 days to three months to complete, depending how involved they are.
Her workload however, is nothing compared with what it was in the police.
"In South Africa, we carried up to 70 cases at a time, per person. Here it's been quite great to see that when there's a major case there'll be more than one investigator assigned to deal with it.
"Over there, if you had a murder case it was just you, if you had a fraud case, it was just you.
"You'd obviously have the assistance of the forensics teams in terms of getting that analysis but actual day-to-day work is by yourself."
A member of the Professional Investigators of New Zealand, Naude says there is a certain degree of undercover work but she draws the line at bugging and tapping phones.
In Britain, the News of the World tabloid newspaper was closed after revelations of a phone-hacking scandal.
The tabloid paid a private investigator to hack into voicemail messages, by using the default pin code or making an educated guess based on personal details such as birth dates.
Telecom customers can choose to make voicemails password-protected, but Vodafone makes a pin code compulsory for checking messages from other phones.
But Vodafone is still vulnerable to voicemail hacking if customers use easily guessed pin numbers, such as birth dates. And 2degrees spokesman Michael Bouliane said the network did not require customers to set up a voicemail pin number but encouraged it.
Naude says most of her clients are insurance companies but she also works for lawyers and develops fraud-training packages.
She is hesitant to get too involved with relationship investigating.
"Recently, I had a Canadian guy phone me from Canada having met someone on the internet. He had sold up ready to move here and marry her and then, there's no further communication, and suspected false photos, false information."
The man wanted Naude to confirm who the person he had been communicating with was and their address.
"I'm not prepared to release an address or contact details because I don't know what his intentions are with her. He could be sitting in Papamoa for all I know. ... This person can spin you a whole story about the subject that they want information on, but there's always that worry that what if you provide it, and they do something untoward."
Naude sent him a quote and outline of what she could do, which included not being able to supply the woman's contact details unless she had her signed authority.
"I've never heard back from him again ... what he told me on the phone just didn't add up. With my background you take little at face value."
How do private investigators differ from police?
"You don't have any extra authority than the average person on the street, whereas the police have the authority to demand stuff, request stuff, subpoena stuff. So we obviously don't have those powers of authority and it's a bit more involved for us and probably a lot more leg work.
"At the end of the day, we're all looking for the truth, that's the bottom line.
"There will always be three sides to every story - his, hers and the truth."
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