Bascombe International was appointed by a solicitor to undertake surveillance on an individual who was claiming in the region of £500,000 through a personal injury case.
The individual claimed the injuries sustained in a car accident meant he could no longer work, walk his dog and so forth. The defendant and solicitor’s client, an insurance company, had suspicions that, based on the results from his medical examinations, perhaps his injuries weren’t quite so bad.
We began surveillance on the individual. Normally, surveillance will only be carried out for a maximum of 2-3 days, as the evidence is usually gathered fairly early on.
However, after 9 or 10 days, he rarely left his house and we had gathered very little evidence. The solicitor requested surveillance for 1 more day, and it was on this day that we finally had a breakthrough.
It was no different to the past 10 days; we sat in our vehicles in the vicinity of the claimant’s house, waiting for a sign of movement. Today; however, the individual decided to leave his house. He got in his car and we followed him to the local sailing club.
The subject drove in through the barriers, but without authorisation to enter the car park with our vehicles, we parked up outside and went on foot. Reaching the sailing club, we looked around and noticed the gates to the foreshore were open, inside, the individual appeared pulling a huge trailer with a sailing boat on it.
The tide was out, so he pulled his trailer, single-handedly, all the way down to the water, where he proceeded to lift his boat off the trailer, get into it, and row out to a small launch moored in the estuary.
We were delighted and stood and filmed the whole thing.
4 hours had passed when we noticed in the distance the individual returning from his nautical escapades. The tide was back in, so after rowing even further than before to reach the shore, he got out, lifted the boat back onto the trailer and hauled it all the way back up to the secure gated area.
Satisfied with the footage captured, we sent it to the solicitor who was then able to present it to their client. They were absolutely delighted with the result.
With the evidence secured, the entire personal injury case was withdrawn, and the defendant then went on to make a claim against the claimant for costs!
Require evidence gathering for a personal injury case? Speak to a member of our private investigator team on 01489 588 885 to discuss our surveillance services.