Page 179 - Deception at work all chapters EBook

180 Deception at Work

Nature of information Comments

Previous statements on the subject

Statements Interview preparation
Interview notes To detect conflicting evidence

Covert inspections

Of the suspect’s home(s) Estimate of price
Building works
Cash spending

Of the suspect’s office Analyse these carefully
Analyse an image copy of his computer (if company owned) Extract ‘key points’
Add to the diary of events

In important cases, examine the suspect’s financial and domestic position, as these often
establish his motive. It is also essential that you carefully analyse any explanations given by
the subject. Important facts should be thoroughly checked and discrepancies should be sched-
uled as ‘key points’ so that they can be presented to him at the appropriate time.

ON SMALL DETAILS home revealed that he was living well
beyond his means (and in one case a man on
Background analysis of the type suggested £25,000 a year had a £120,000 sports car
in Table 5.8 has thrown up some critical parked on his drive). In other cases vacation
clues and evidence. In a number of cases, addresses turned out to be a villa owned
suspects had authorized payments to by a supplier. And in the most surprising
fictitious vendors in the maiden names case of all, involving manipulation of an
of their wives, to ex-employees who electronic payments system, the suspect
mysteriously appeared as vendors had noted the method of fraud used as well
immediately after the suspect joined the as incriminating memory dumps in copies of
victim employer or at addresses owned procedure manuals issued to him
by a family member or at one of their own
previous addresses. Inspection of a suspect’s

An argument is sometimes put forward – based on a misinterpretation of the Data Protec-
tion Act – that information from personnel files cannot be accessed. This is incorrect and
any data – even the most personal – can be used for the purpose of preventing and detecting
crime.

PREPARE A DOSSIER ON SUSPECT COMPANIES

Prepare a full dossier on the background of each suspect company, extracting details from:

• official files, showing names of directors, shareholdings, annual accounts etc.;
• credit agencies, such as Dunn and Bradstreet or Experian;
• bank references;
• trade directories;