Gumshoes angry after Whitehall steps on their toes

Private investigators insist there is no need for licences and training.

The Observer, Sunday January 13 2008

It's enough to make Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett's fictional private eye immortalised by Humphrey Bogart, breakfast on a quadruple bourbon. Gumshoes, who have a reputation for bending the law to dig out sensitive information, face being bound up in red tape. For the first time, the government wants to regulate them.

Proposals due to be published next week are expected to see the Security Industry Authority (SIA) move to license investigators, place them on a publicly accessible database, and force them to undergo training. The proposals come in the wake of its decision in 2001 to license the security industry.

The idea has some of the most powerful investigation firms in the UK up in arms. Though they do not object to being licensed, they fear the government might go down a road that could compromise the identity of undercover detectives working on sensitive cases that involve organised crime or high finance.

'I think they have failed to understand the breadth of our industry and the players in it,' says John Cunningham, global director of corporate investigations at industry giant Control Risks.

Jeff Katz, chief executive of Bishop International, who made his name by establishing that Italian banker Roberto Calvi did not commit suicide but was murdered, says: 'It would appear that the authors of the proposals are uninformed about the nature of investigations, particularly those carried out in connection with organised crime.

'For the purposes of such investigations, it is often necessary to pose as something other than an investigator. If, in those circumstances, someone was found to be carrying [SIA] identification, they could be in danger of losing life or limb. The suggestion illustrates a gross ignorance of investigative work.'

Some believe that the government crackdown on investigators was prompted by the inability 18 months ago to sentence two private investigators, who supplied personal information on a huge range of individuals to hundreds of journalists, to more than a conditional discharge.

At the time, the government's information commissioner, Richard Thomas, said: 'A custodial sentence is needed to deter people from this trade.'

Richard Newman, president of the Association of British Investigators, says his organisation has been campaigning for investigators to be licensed for the past 50 years and broadly welcomes the move. He points to a case in which a man charged with paedophilia offences set up an agency to trace lost children immediately on his release: 'This behaviour is not something we can countenance. We asked the Criminal Record Bureau if they ran checks, and were told that it wasn't their job.'

Source