PI Mike on tail of cheats and liars

Next time you take a sickie from work or cheat on your partner it is possible Mike Baker is watching your every move.

The 41-year-old is a private investigator who is hired by suspicious spouses and unbelieving employers in the West Midlands area.

"I'd say 70 per cent of my work comes from solicitors, 20 per cent comes from businesses and then 10 per cent directly from the public," says Mike, who runs Baker & Co, which is based on Goodall Street in Walsall.

"My bread and butter work is serving legal documents on people in the Walsall area," Mike explains.

"Often people will stand up in court and say that they have never received a document and so we have to personally hand it to them," he says.

"It can be a bit scary when you knock on the door of a dark council flat to hand over an ASBO or go to a field filled with travellers and serve them with a notice saying that they have to move on," he adds.

Mike says that around once a week a suspicious husband or wife will get in touch with him hoping for proof that their spouse is unfaithful.

"It used to be just the wives phoning me to check up on their husbands, but now around 35 per cent of my calls are from men. I have to be very careful with matrimonial investigations because people can lose their job, their house and custody of their children.

"I don't investigate murders like they do in the TV programmes – most of a private investigator's job is tracking and document searching.

"We don't use telephone bugging, as it is illegal unless you have the permission of the person paying the bill."

Mike says he is paid £35 per hour and there are two methods of surveillance, which are not as easy as they appear to be in films and on TV.

"There is static surveillance where I sit in the back of my van watching a person," the investigator explains. "This is usually if they are saying they are off work sick and their company doesn't believe them or they are trying to claim compensation for an injury.

"It is not as glamorous as it appears to be in the movies where the investigator spots the person within seconds and then gets the video footage or pictures they need.

"Often I'm stuck in the back of the van, where it is either roasting hot or freezing cold, for hours just to get two minutes of video footage.

"The other type of surveillance is mobile, where I follow someone in a car or on foot.

"I make sure that they don't know they are being followed, however if it is an insurance claim then they will know they are under surveillance as their solicitor will have told them."

Mike says that he often traces bad debtors, who have not left forwarding addresses.

"Some people can be illusive. However, we have access to credit reference agencies and people tend to leave a paper trail.

"When they move house they will tell their bank, the gas company, mobile phone provider – and we can track them down that way."

Mike, who usually works on his own, says that he can be put in some dangerous situations with his job.

"I do car repossessions, and people are never happy to hand over the keys," says Mike who has been married for 18 years and has two children.

"Also I can get a warrant to go into businesses and oversee disconnection of gas and electricity if they have not paid their bills.

"The main equipment I use are trackers for mobile phones, video cameras, body-worn cameras, and surveillance vans."

Mike grew up in the heart of Walsall and he originally trained as an electronic engineer at Walsall College.

He got into private investigating 10 years ago when he served a legal document to someone as a favour for a friend.

"To be a private investigator you have to be quick-thinking and a bit cunning," he adds.

"One man, who I was trying to serve a court notice on, had electric gates to his house and wouldn't get out of his car.

"I ended up putting a piece of wood in front of his gates so he had to get out and move it and then I gave him the order – as long as you put it in their hands you have done the job.

"However, there are nice sides to the job. Sometimes I have to find beneficiaries of wills. Recently I had to tell a disabled man in Walsall he had been awarded £100,000 – he was over the moon.

"If there is someone out there, and I'm given enough money, I will find them – no one can hide."

By Cathy Spencer.