A local tyre manufacturer theft syndicate has been exposed. Suspecting large stock losses, said tyre manufacturer approached Justicia Investigations, a private detective agency, to investigate the loss. The investigator assigned to this case made use of the expertise of the Justicia Investigations Covert Division to infiltrate the workforce of the company with undercover operatives. This covert operation took 5 months, to establishing who was involved and how these thefts took place, exposing a syndicate of seven employees, all working in different phases of production. These employees needed to work together to make the thefts possible and to keep it a secret. From the information provided by the undercover agent, the investigator was able to establish that the theft only occurred during night shift, when there was no senior management on duty. To avoid detection, each syndicate member played a role in removing the tyres out of the factory. The factory was initially monitored by CCTV surveillance, yet when footage was reviewed, no irregularities were revealed. The investigator soon realised that one of the tyre manufacturer theft syndicate members was turning off the CCTV system during the removal of stock by the syndicate members. This was to be the syndicate’s demise. Justicia Investigations Technical Department was called in to assist and, on the next occasion of theft, the camera that the syndicate thought was turned off was, in fact, capturing the theft and identified one of the syndicate members during the final phase of stock removal. The footage showed the company’s driver waiting to collect the tyres outside the factory. This identified the driver to the investigator and was the catalyst for unravelling the syndicate. All the syndicate members confessed and a criminal case was pursued.
Justicia Undercover Agent Exposes Theft Syndicate
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Justicia Investigations, established in 1992, is a private investigations agency based in Durban and Johannesburg.