A private investigator 's secret window on the world

By JOHN ANDREWS

Trying to rip off a medical insurance company? Be aware. A guy in that innocuous looking van nearby may be secretly monitoring your every move.

Behind the tinted windows could be a private investigator, assigned to catch fraudsters and thieves on film.

The 16 staff in Ron McQuilter's Auckland-based firm, The Investigation Bureau - mainly ex-policemen - are trained in surveillance tactics.

They often use the chameleon-like vehicle furtively to document the activities of those trying to make a fraudulent buck - sometimes millions of them.

Mr McQuilter believes his van is the only privately-owned surveillance vehicle of its type in the country.

Adding false company signs to the outside, private investigators are able to spend hours at a time in the vehicle, which has a toilet, cameras, desk and chairs which are fixed to the floor with suction cups, even a whiteboard.

Mr McQuilter spent $6500 fitting out the van with extra batteries to power fans, a music system, special lights, rear window demister - just about everything an investigator needs while watching a target.

The money appears to have been well spent because of those being monitored, no one has yet twigged to the real reason the van is in their immediate vicinity.

The stealth vehicle has been such a success that Government law enforcement agents often borrow it for their surveillance duty.

This is the second van to be fitted out for surveillance by The Investigation Bureau. It replaced the original bureau van, an ageing vehicle which had its cover blown after it was used by a rival firm and shown in a television documentary.

After that everyone in the trade knew it was a surveillance van, Mr McQuilter said. Its time was up.

As an example of how effective the new van is, Mr McQuilter cited the case of an American insurance company which commissioned the bureau to monitor the activities of a foreign yacht passenger in Tauranga last September.

The yachtie had reportedly tried to sue for millions of dollars over a medical claim.

"This guy said he could do nothing because he was so ill. He could do no lifting, bending or anything,"Mr McQuilter said.

"We were able to park the van at the marina for a week. We would have been 20 metres from the guy.

"While in port he repaired and replaced a complete awning over the boat.

"The insurance company was so rapt they paid us in United States dollars instead of our bill in New Zealand dollars. We refunded the difference."

Mr McQuilter also tells what he regards as a classic story of an Auckland man claiming an insurance payment of $100,000.

It was a medical insurance claim that he had a permanent disability that he claimed had got progressively worse. The man said he was so ill he had to retrain himself to use a computer using a stick in his mouth.

"We got him three days in a row grinding rust off a van and welding bits on a truck.

"We were that close [in the van] to him that in transcribing notes on a tape recorder, you could hear the guy whistling."

The target of this operation did not succeed with his insurance claim.

"We recommended they prosecute him."