Competition Fraud Escalates – A Case of Kurtz Detective Agency Cologne

Due to numerous internal incidents within the company, Mr G. had received notice of ordinary termination of his employment. As early as the next working day, the Drieg Gütertransport GmbH (name fictitious), later the client of Kurtz Detective Agency Cologne, received Mr G.’s sick note. This was accepted – however transparent the action appeared. Yet the termination of the employee was linked to a six-month non-competition clause, meaning that Mr G. was not permitted to work in the same industry for a period of nine months (notice period plus non-competition clause).

 

After just a few days, the clients of our Cologne detectives noticed that they were hardly generating any new orders – and if they were, then only by post or via email. A review of the telephone line revealed that all calls to Drieg GmbH were being forwarded to a mobile phone number. When an employee of our clients called this mobile number, the voicemail activated after just a few seconds – without stating a name.

 

The clients of the corporate investigators of Kurtz Detective Agency Cologne informed the telephone company and had the call forwarding blocked. Nevertheless, the lines remained silent in the days that followed. Long-standing clients also no longer answered calls and never returned them. Losses already ran into the thousands within these first few days.

 

Two weeks later, the employees of Drieg GmbH also discovered that numerous transport containers and even a lorry had disappeared from the company premises. Due to numerous previous incidents, suspicion quickly fell on Mr G. The detectives of our Cologne corporate investigation division were engaged.

As a first step, our investigators conducted internet research, which quickly produced astonishing results: not only was Mr G. advertising his own transport company in his own name on numerous websites and portals, he had also created a new online presence in the name of the company Drieg, whose contact number was precisely the one to which all calls to Drieg had been forwarded.

 

Further enquiries revealed that Mr G. had not even registered a business. In addition, he was receiving unemployment benefit despite still receiving wages from Drieg GmbH in accordance with the notice period.

 

The clients of our Cologne detectives filed a criminal complaint and demanded injunctive relief.

 

The facts gathered up to this point alone would have been sufficient for an indictment. However, the clients of Kurtz Corporate Investigation Cologne wanted to know the full extent, and so surveillance of Mr G. was initiated. Our Cologne corporate investigators positioned themselves at dawn on the access roads to the target person’s residence.

 

At around 07:00, Mr G. left the residential address in his private car and drove to a nearby car park, where he got into a lorry – identical in type to the missing vehicle of our clients. On the loading area was a container whose shape and colour exactly matched the stolen one. The circumstantial evidence would already have been sufficient at this point to involve the police. However, the detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Cologne were instructed to continue the surveillance. After all, Drieg wanted to know which clients had been poached.

 

What followed was a day-long trip through the Rhineland, during which containers were repeatedly unloaded and loaded at various locations. Many of these destinations were company premises of clients of Drieg GmbH.

 

After the target person parked the lorry back at the car park in the evening and returned to the residential address in his private car, our Cologne corporate investigators proceeded to the lorry for a closer inspection. The vehicle identification number matched that of the missing Drieg vehicle. Once again, our Cologne detectives wished to notify the police, but Drieg GmbH requested a further day of surveillance.

 

The previous day’s activities were repeated. Although mostly different addresses were visited, the general procedure was the same, meaning that the intelligence gain on the second day was rather limited – until the target person met three individuals and suddenly drove with them to the residential address of the managing director of Drieg GmbH. This was a narrow street, which the target person completely blocked with the lorry.

 

Together with the three other individuals, Mr G. positioned himself in front of the residence, rang the doorbell repeatedly and, when there was no response, shouted hateful tirades through the neighbourhood: what the managing director thought he was doing reporting Mr G. to the authorities; why he was such a “cowardly pig” and did not show himself; that he would personally drag him out of the house if necessary.

 

The corporate investigators of Kurtz Detective Agency Cologne observed and documented the actions precisely from both ends of the street and remained in constant telephone contact with the managing director of Drieg GmbH. At this time, he was still on the company premises – the house was empty, and the target person was therefore shouting at bare walls. It was agreed that the time had now come to inform the police.

 

Shortly afterwards, the officers secured the stolen lorry and detained Mr G. and his three “accomplices”.

 

The detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Cologne concluded the operation and expressed their astonishment at the intuition of the managing director, who, due to his insistence on extending the operation by one additional day, had effectively been presented with a legal festival.

 

Based on the data contained in the investigation report, the clients of Kurtz Detective Agency Cologne subsequently contacted the apparently poached customers. It emerged that Mr G. had continued to present himself to them as an employee of Drieg, carried out deliveries in the company’s name and issued invoices to the company address of our clients – with only the bank account number having changed.

 

Claims for damages and injunctive relief are in preparation.

All names and locations have, of course, been completely altered to ensure the protection of the client and the target person.

 

Kurtz Detective Agency Cologne

Zülpicher Straße 58D

D-50674 Köln | Cologne

Tel.: +49 221 4558 0377

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-koeln.de  

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-koeln.de/en

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