One80 advises a business who has suspicions surrounding staff sick leave which led to a surveillance-undertaking operation.

The challenge

Following comments from a whistle-blower, our client was getting increasingly suspicious of one of the company’s senior members of staff who had been on long-term sick leave due to a medical condition. The company, a known UK Plc, instructed One80 after failing to find sufficient evidence to take any formal action.

The solution

After concerns had been raised doubting the sincerity of the leave, we were formally engaged to investigate the validity of the claims. It was suggested that the employee in question was in fact well enough to work but was taking advantage of the company’s sick leave policy. As the employee was a senior member of staff their absence was having a ripple effect on the operations of the business and the company was eager to take formal action against the employee if their leave proved fraudulent.

Our One80 experts understood the sensitivity of the operation and the significance in keeping the investigation confidential. The investigations team requested that all known evidence to be made available to them so that they could decide on the most appropriate investigation tactic.

The team undertook a surveillance operation in which the staff member was observed over a period of several days. The observations were reported on but no concrete conclusion could be drawn from our findings. We strongly felt that from the initial evidence the team obtained there was more to the situation.

To further reinforce the evidence, the team decided to undertake additional intelligence-gathering investigations. This involved collecting available information about employee through the means of the internet among other platforms.