Private Investigator Gummersbach | Private Detective Gummersbach –

Kurtz Detective Agency, Germany*

Company Anniversary as an Indicator of Experience and Quality: 10 Years of Kurtz Detective Agency in 2023

Case Study: Violations of the Crafts Code and Competition Law – Commission from a Business Consortium

A business consortium, under whose umbrella various companies had joined forces, primarily civil-law partnerships, approached Kurtz Investigations Cologne because there was suspicion that one of the members was acting in an anti-competitive manner towards another. Specifically, there was a suspicion of contractually improper poaching and employment of subcontractors who might have been working on construction sites in and around Gummersbach in the Oberbergischer Kreis. In addition, the classification of the workers concerned as subcontractors appeared highly questionable from a social insurance perspective. Furthermore, our client, Mr Knapsack, suspected violations of the Crafts Code, as the company to be reviewed was not licensed for full trades by the competent Chamber of Crafts, yet was apparently carrying out corresponding activities.

 

These three grounds for suspicion were already so specific that the commissioning of our detectives in Gummersbach served less to clarify the matter and more to obtain evidence admissible in court. It should be noted that Mr Knapsack, as representative of the business consortium, had already personally encountered the subcontractors in question on a construction site of the target company before instructing Kurtz Investigations Cologne.

Abundance of Prior Information Facilitates Detective Investigations

As complex as the case structure of several companies, target persons, suspicions and a consortium at the top may sound, the investigative work ultimately proved simple, simply because so many points that would normally present themselves as variables were already known. One of these points was that the three target persons, who incidentally all came from Romania, were, to Mr Knapsack’s knowledge, still living in the same workers’ accommodation as during their employment for the other company within his business consortium. The address of this accommodation also served as the first point of approach for our corporate detectives in Gummersbach: at five o’clock in the morning on the first day of surveillance, the two deployed investigators arrived at the residential address and positioned themselves for observation. At that time, the roller shutters were still closed, and work shirts were hanging on a washing line on the terrace. As no relevant activities were observed until seven thirty, one of the two observers relocated to the known construction site and later – as nothing happened there either – to the suspected company. Although the detective could hear work-related noises from the production halls, no more concrete indications of the presence of the target persons emerged.

 

In order to give a new approach a chance, our private detective returned to the residential address in Gummersbach and took over the observation there, while his colleague carried out a legend-based enquiry among local residents.

Neighbourhood Enquiries Confirm the Residential Status of the Target Persons

As is typical on weekday mornings, there was no response to the investigator’s ringing at most households, but in a block of flats two houses away from the residential address, the detective was fortunate on several occasions. Three male individuals from different flats independently confirmed the following key points to our detective agency in Gummersbach:

 

• The occupants of the target address were “workers” from Romania.
• They were always seen walking to and from work, despite owning vehicles.
• They worked for the target company of the present investigative commission.
• They had been known locally for some time and, apart from the Christmas holidays, resided permanently at their address in Gummersbach.

 

One of the three respondents additionally stated that he had seen the group as recently as the previous day.

 

After consultation with the client, Mr Knapsack, our two detectives in Gummersbach continued the observation of the residential address. However, nothing of factual relevance occurred until late afternoon. Then a vehicle with Romanian registration plates arrived; two male persons with light travel luggage and wearing neutral clothing got out and entered the residential property, shortly after which the roller shutters were raised. The third target person could not be identified. Overall, it appeared as though we had selected a rest or arrival day for our observation. By agreement with Mr Knapsack, the observation was terminated at around six o’clock.

An Indirect Detective Conversation with a Target Person – in Romanian

As Mr Knapsack had only a limited budget available for clarifying the issues reported to his business consortium, Kurtz Detective Agency in Gummersbach changed its approach for the next deployment: it was not surveillance that was intended to bring greater clarity, but rather another legend-based enquiry – this time of the target persons themselves. For this purpose, a Romanian citizen living in Germany (unknown to the target persons) was recruited as an accomplice and carefully briefed to approach the target persons together with an investigator and elicit information from them through conversation. The hope that the Romanian workers would be approachable was further encouraged during the approach to their residential property, as a company sign of the suspected enterprise was openly displayed in the entrance area, additionally listing the names of the three target persons. One of the three men was just behind the house washing a vehicle with Romanian registration plates. The accomplice of our detective in Gummersbach addressed the target person in Romanian and explained that he was looking for accommodation, as he would soon be working on assignment in the area. The friendly conversation lasted a good five minutes. After taking leave, our accomplice summarised the conversation in German for our Cologne detective:

 

The target person openly stated that he had been working in and around Gummersbach for years and that his current employer was the target company, for which the trio had been working for approximately one year. Our accomplice was even able to elicit a concrete description of their activities from the target person. In view of these findings, our informant would serve as a key witness should the matter go to court. The operations management of our corporate detective agency for Gummersbach informed Mr Knapsack of the findings from the enquiry. He was so satisfied that he terminated the assignment. Although Kurtz Detective Agency considered it advisable to consolidate the results obtained through further enquiries and surveillance, the business consortium already had sufficient grounds, based on what had been established so far, to enforce the contractual penalty from its agreement with the target company.

Note

To safeguard discretion as well as the personal rights of clients and target persons, all names and locations in this case report have been altered to complete unrecognisability.