Recession-busting - Warwickshire Investigation Agency defies downturn

May 6, 2009 - PRLog -- As the UK continues to face a downturn in the economy, professional Private Investigator, Maria Cooper, who heads the award winning Warwickshire Investigation Agency (WIA), defies the recession by assisting businesses both large and small to recover thousands of pounds worth of debt.

Every week, hundreds of businesses are forced in to closure as the recession bites down hard on profits, and the debts mount up. Maria comments "for the honest business owner, times can be challenging in the current economic climate but they are made all the more difficult by unscrupulous clients not paying their debts"

Maria is referring to a worrying trend which is seemingly on the increase "At WIA we are experiencing a huge increase in businesses approaching us for assistance in tracing debtors who have absconded leaving considerable debt in their wake. Years ago, one would hear of the occasional 'moonlight flit' by individuals renting business or private accomodation, now this trend is becoming increasingly alarming"

Maria explains that this practice of what she calls 'rent and run' is normally quite carefully executed by serial debtors who set up a business overnight and after trading for some months and running up rent arrears, they will disappear seemingly without trace, leaving behind them confused customers and angry creditors.

"It is a way of life for many of these unscrupulous individuals and they are well practised at their art" she explains, "they seldom stay in one place for more than a few months and will frequently but subtly change their personal details in order to dupe the next unsuspecting firm by using middle names as first names and so forth. They consider themselves to be very clever and one step ahead of the game, but I am pleased to say that increasing we are helping businesses to fight back and recover the debts that their businesses are owed. "


What serial debtors often fail to realise is that they do not disappear without trace, indeed quite the opposite according to Maria. "We rely on these individuals leaving their credit footprint and they do. It is from this footprint that the WIA team will begin to locate them"

Warwickshire Investigation Agency uses a number of professional resources to effectively track and trace debtors across the UK. She explains "we provide a national service to businesses in the UK to assist them in tracing and locating debtors in order that court papers can be served to recover debts. It can be a time consuming process but one that is helping many of our clients to recover considerable amounts of otherwise lost revenue"

She continues "Mostly businesses come to us when they have spent many months writing to the debtor threatening court action. Of course, these letters are ignored by the individuals concerned but they do serve well as an early warning sign advertising only that it is indeed time to move on again. We receive the instruction to attempt to locate and trace the debtor with details which are now already out of date."

Maria goes on to explain that WIA's success rate for tracking down debtors is very high but adds a word of caution "the client must be prepared to act quickly on the information and ensure that court papers are issued. We always advise that these papers are served on the debtor personally, never sent by post or the client will find themselves back to square one again. We provide professional process service throughout the UK and nothing gives me greater pleasure than to effect the service of court papers on a debtor that we have pursued and located for our clients"

But tracing and serving court papers aside, Maria has further advice to business owners "re-visit your good business housekeeping where you are providing services or credit. By that I mean run professional background checks on individuals prior to providing the service. It is possible to largely protect yourself against these people. If you gain the applicants written permission, and the honest person who has nothing to hide will 99% of the time conform, credit checks can be run prior to you taking on the risk. This has proved effective in many industries and indeed for many employers also. I should say that where a debt already exists we do not need the permission of the debtor to run checks"

It is fact though that some debtors simply do not have the funds to be able to repay debts, even where a court judgement has been won, so what can businesses do in these circumstances? Well, WIA provide a service which they call FIT TO SUE, Maria explains
"our fit to sue report, sometimes referred to as a means report, comes into its own in circumstances such as these. On occasions, businesses need to know if it is worth their time and effort to pursue an individual if the debt is fairly substantial verses is the debtor able to pay? We provide a service whereby our team of investigators will trace the known assets of the debtor using a combination of field inquiries and desktop asset searching to provide an estimated value of wealth based on the evidence we have found. This report and supporting evidence is sufficient for our clients to make an informed decision"

Maria concluded the interview with one final piece of advice `'the recession marks a time where all businesses have to tighten their belts a little and consider tactics going forward. If you have fallen victim to a debtor, don't attempt to justify writing the debt off by thinking you have no other option. From what we have discussed today, clearly you have many options open to you. Do not put your business at further financial risk, simply take the first step to ensure that your business recovers what it is legally owed."


This press release would like to point out that credit searches can only be performed by professional bodies who hold a current Consumer Credit Licence. WIA is Data Protection Act registered and are fully insured.

If you would like to know more about debtor tracing, integrity testing, background checks and fit to sue reports you can contact Warwickshire Investigation Agency direct on: 01789 770980 or via email: enquiry@warwickshireinvestigation.co.uk

Press release ends

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Warwickshire Investigation Agency provide Professional Witness Services to Commercial,Retail and Private clients. Covert surveillance experts for ASB,Insurance Fraud, False Injury claims. Specialist services also include infidelity cases & debtor tracing.