Gatwick Diamond Investigations (Crawley)

Enquiries & Investigations, Debt Recovery (over 19 years’ experience), Tracing & Process Serving, Missing Persons, Surveillance (including insurance & benefits claims, matrimonial/divorce/cohabitation, absenteeism & moonlighting, & theft), Status Reports, Repossessions, Arrears Interviews, Background Checks, Card & Cheque Book Retrieval, Doorstep Collections, Test Purchasing, Accident Investigations, Witness Statements, Document Delivery, & Court Attendances.

Local Knowledge, National Resources & International Contacts

All enquiries welcome, with no obligation to proceed.

Main Operational Areas: Clapham, Croydon, Redhill, Reigate, Guildford, Dorking, Horley, Gatwick, Crawley, Horsham, East Grinstead, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Brighton & Hove, plus surrounding areas.

DPA & OFT Registered (CCL No. 605080)

& Member of www.britishagents.com

Process Serving

Anyone can deliver documents to an address, but will they be received by the correct person, within an appropriate time frame, and is service being effected in the manner prescribed by the Court and expected by the client?

Achieving this level of service requires experience, local knowledge, tact & interpersonal skills, planning & punctuality, knowledge of sometimes complex procedures, attention to detail, determination, guile, and the ability to add “impact” to the serve where appropriate to ensure that the person being served deals with the documents with the urgency they deserve.

This is the art of effective, properly conducted process serving and we have the skills and knowledge to achieve this for you.

In addition, process serving puts an agent at an address on at least one occasion, presenting an ideal opportunity to gather information from the person being served and from local enquiries. Some of our competitors may offer cheaper rates, but will they “go the extra mile” to help you progress your case effectively and economically, or will they serve the papers then move rapidly on to the next case in their diary because their margins are too low to give you a proper service?

Will their reports, affidavits and witness statements be as comprehensive and professional as you would like?

Will they discuss potential instructions with you without charge or obligation, so you can make informed choices and ensure you get good value for money?

If your answer to any of the above is “no”, please give us a call.

Tracing

All our tracing procedures are legal and fully DPA / OFT compliant and, whilst claims of incredibly high success rates might look good in marketing material and impress clients in the short term, our philosophy is that high quality ethical tracing will serve both us and our clients far better in the long term.

We do not provide speculative, database generated addresses as positive traces on the off chance that a certain percentage will be correct or that you simply won’t be able to prove us wrong and then hide behind an intricate recheck policy which involves you risking a further trace fee being incurred to query our findings.

Our traces will all be confirmed from as many different sources as we can muster (preferably a minimum of three including either direct contact or carefully targeted local enquiries), and if we can’t be confident about an address we will advise you accordingly so you can make an informed decision on which steps to take next and whether to incur further costs.

We will help you to judge each case on its merits and assess viability at every stage.

In the main, we are instructed to trace debtors, missing persons, will beneficiaries, and witnesses to accidents but of course we are happy to take on a wide variety of other instructions and, through a comprehensive network of international agents, we can trace worldwide and pursue your instructions in every jurisdiction. 

Surveillance

Can be conducted either in person by an agent or agents depending on how we assess each scenario and your particular requirements and budgets. In some cases electronic tracking or surveillance can prove more effective.

We can conduct surveillance work in connection with matrimonial, divorce, relationship and cohabitation issues, people who are proving highly evasive in terms of trace enquiries and process serving, anti-social behaviour and nuisance neighbours, insurance and benefits claims, absenteeism and moonlighting, and theft.

Miscellaneous Services

Arrears interviews, Collections attendances & Status Reports

Repossessions, retrieval of bank & credit cards and leased equipment

Test purchasing, piracy, counterfeiting & copyright infringements

Accident investigations, taking witness statements

Document delivery 

Court attendances

Debt Recovery

Credit control – get it under control before it even becomes a debt by letting us handle your credit control from the point you issue the invoice. We appreciate that each of your customers will need to be handled differently and that there is a clear distinction between the credit control and debt recovery phases.

Demand / threat letters – these are appropriately worded to ensure maximum impact and achieve early, cost-effective payment wherever possible.

Prompt & effective telephone dunning – ensures that the impact of the demand letters is not lost and helps to instil and maintain a sense of urgency and priority for your debt in the debtor’s mind.

Handling telephone contact with the debtor effectively can make it an important fact-finding tool and can help differentiate early in the process between the “can’t pays” and the “won’t pays”, so we can help you assess the realistic prospects of economical recovery. There is no point throwing good money after bad, unless there is a strong point of principle you wish to pursue regardless of whether you recover the debt.

Doorstep collections and arrears interviews are a further opportunity to fact-find in person from the debtor or from local enquiries and, whenever possible, to collect payments too of course.

Legal Action & Enforcement Options – if the debtor is uncooperative and you believe they can pay but won’t unless they are pressurised by Court proceedings, you’ll have no choice but to head down this route and we can help you decide on the most appropriate pressure which the legal system and the debtor’s circumstances will allow you to bring to bear. In many cases a Judgment alone will not extract payment and we encourage our clients to plan ahead in terms of how they intend to enforce their Judgment and which method is likely to extract prompt payment. 

        To begin a claim in the County Court a Claim Form has to be prepared and issued, and there are then various scenarios depending on how the debtor is to be served, and if and how they choose to respond to your claim. When the Court  grants you a Judgment payable immediately you can move to the enforcement stage. Disputes and defences can generally be resolved through relatively basic litigation, but in extreme cases we may recommend that you consult a solicitor who specialises in this area. We can put you in touch with solicitors with these skills and will negotiate favourable rates for you wherever possible.

        A Charging Order can be sought to secure the Judgment debt over any land or property owned by the debtor. You then have the option to wait for the property to be sold or re-mortgaged whereupon you will be paid from any available equity after payment is made to the prior mortgagees and chargees, or to apply to the Court for an Order for Possession & Sale of the property in order to realise that equity more quickly.

        An Attachment of Earnings can be sought against PAYE income and results either in payments being made by the debtor direct under a Suspended Order (at which stage the employer is unaware of the Court action) or being deducted at source via the employer and the Court.

        A Warrant of Execution allows you to instruct the Bailiff, Sheriff, or High Court Enforcement Officer to seize goods from the debtor to the value of the debt plus costs or to collect payment should the debtor wish to avoid seizure. Emerging Debt Recovery Ltd are my preferred provider for this service and for commercial rent collection etc.

        It is worth noting that in some cases you won’t need a Judgment to pursue Bankruptcy against a debtor; it is possible to serve a Statutory Demand and follow that with a Bankruptcy Petition without having taken any other proceedings. We are happy to advise you whether this is appropriate on any of your debts.

        Bankruptcy is the ultimate sanction if your debtor is insolvent or you have reason to believe they have committed insolvency offences which an Official Receiver or Trustee might be able to examine with a view to overturning transactions such as preferential payments to creditors or transactions at an undervalue. This is an extremely complex area and further information is available on request.

        A Garnishee is a rather speculative method of enforcement and is rarely used, but in certain cases can result in funds being seized whilst in bank accounts and other financial assets or investments being seized from the relevant institution.

        An Order for Production of Statement of Means is intended to bring the debtor, under threat of arrest, before the Court to explain their non-payment and examine their financial circumstances and domestic budget to produce an Order for monthly instalments at a mutually acceptable level. Although this does persuade some debtors to maintain regular payments and gathers valuable information, the disadvantage is that if the debtor defaults you will incur further costs having to pursue fresh enforcement proceedings.

        Corporate Debts – where a limited company, LLP or partnership is insolvent and the directors or partners are unwilling or unable to take the appropriate steps to appoint a Liquidator or Receiver, creditors can Petition for the Winding Up of the business.