Corporate Detective Agency Leverkusen | Private Investigator Leverkusen*

Our Rhenish detective team conducts investigations in Leverkusen for corporate and private clients from Germany and abroad. At Aaden Corporate Detective Agency GmbH, we ensure maximum discretion and court-admissible evidence during all research and surveillance operations. Contact our expert detectives for a free consultation: +49 221 9859 2399.

Case Study: Employee Sick Pay Fraud in Leverkusen

A company from Leverkusen had employed an electrician, Mr. Erkelenz, for three years, and during that time he had managed to accumulate sixteen sick notes, usually involving longer periods of absence. When the managing director googled the name of this perpetually ill employee, he was quite astonished, because he found this person rather high up in the top scorers list of a Cologne district league division. If the man was sick so often, how could he first of all be fit enough to score so many goals, and secondly, when was he actually playing? Another alarming clue emerged for the latter question: despite an alleged acute gastrointestinal illness and the corresponding sick note, the electrician had been listed as a goalscorer in an online match report from the previous weekend.

The suspicion of a feigned illness was very strong, and so the company engaged our detective agency in Leverkusen* (+49 221 9859 2399) to investigate the suspicious employee.

Dangers of Short Detective Deployment Windows

At the time our corporate detectives in Leverkusen were commissioned, Mr. Erkelenz was still on sick leave, which meant that the first surveillance operation could be arranged immediately. In order to keep detective fees low and make the observation as efficient as possible, our investigators were supposed to show up at the target person’s home address only in the afternoon around 4:00 p.m. After all, the commissioning management had a very specific suspicion that Mr. Erkelenz might go to football training on one or more weekdays – and for men’s teams, due to the players’ working hours, this usually takes place only in the early evening. While the idea of beginning surveillance only in the afternoon on the basis of these factors is certainly clever, our detectives in Leverkusen pointed out a related risk to management: if the target person had already left the house earlier in the day to run errands, visit friends, or even pursue a secret second job while unfit for work, no initial observation at his home address would be possible. The investigation would then be for naught, and detective costs would be incurred without any direct benefit for the client.

Since in this specific case there was at least still the possibility that one of our two deployed observers might occasionally drive past the football pitch to check whether training had already begun, the risk was somewhat limited. What this somewhat unusual deployment time and investigative tactic did not cover, however, was the possibility mentioned above of a side job. In this context, Aaden Corporate Detective Agency for Leverkusen always points out to its clients that, especially in personnel checks, one should not save money in the wrong place, since detective costs are reimbursable provided that the effort is proportionate to the suspicion and the offense, and of course provided that the employee has been proven guilty in a court-admissible manner. If the deployment times are chosen too conservatively, the investigators may miss crucial observations simply because they were sent to the right place at the wrong time.

Suspicious Driving Behavior of the Target Person

In this case, our private detectives in Leverkusen and thus also their clients were fortunate, because Mr. Erkelenz actually left the house around half past six in the evening and got into his car. His clothing: a Fortuna Düsseldorf jersey, short training shorts, and running shoes, plus a sports bag over his shoulder and a water bottle in his hand. Although our detective team in Leverkusen could exclude with 100% certainty having been seen by the target person, he immediately began heavily “shaking” them off after setting off, meaning that Mr. Erkelenz drove various maneuvers to check whether he was being followed; these included U-turns, driving into dead-end streets, taking side streets and detours instead of the much faster direct route via the main road, and deliberately stopping to let vehicles behind him pass. The electrician therefore put quite a strain on our two corporate investigators in Leverkusen, yet they still managed to follow the suspect all the way to the football pitch.

Mr. Erkelenz entered the clubhouse with the changing rooms and started training a few minutes later. He behaved very conspicuously, repeatedly going to the fence and scanning the surrounding area. Fortunately, our observers had chosen a concealed position about 300 meters away, from which they could document the activity with telephoto lenses without being seen themselves. After training ended, our private detective agency in Leverkusen did not continue following the target person in order to maintain discretion, but instead ended the surveillance.

Court-Admissible Evidence Documentation by Our Detective Agency

On two further deployment days in the same week, different investigators observed similar events: on the first occasion, Mr. Erkelenz again drove to training; on the second assignment, he played a league match and remained on the pitch for the full 90 minutes. That a feigned illness, namely sick note fraud, was at play here was therefore obvious. At the clients’ request, our detective agency in Leverkusen ended its work and handed the affected company a court-admissible investigative report for further use.

*Notice*

Note: For reasons of discretion and data protection, the locations of operations and certain personal details have been altered without changing the substance of the actual events.

*Note: All operations of Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Cologne are handled by our operations management at our headquarters in Cologne. We maintain a network of qualified, vetted investigators who can be deployed on site for you at short notice.