R v S
Opus Law represents private detective in landmark ‘blagging’ trial.
As a result of a long running surveillance operation by SOCA, four private detectives were jailed at Kingston Crown Court after a landmark fraud case in which the defendants talked or ‘blagged’ confidential information out of banks and phone companies. Opus Law, the specialist division of Petherbridge Bassra that focuses on business and complex crime, represented S, who had previously had a career as a metropolitan police officer and subsequently set up a private investigations company. Other defendants included a former member the British Army’s Special forces who had served in Northern Ireland.
Operation Millipede involved the investigation of the illegal practice of pre-texting in which freelance investigators such as the defendants are commissioned to obtain personal information, including bank and credit card details, from individuals. Much of the evidence in this case was obtained from incriminating emails recovered from the hard drive of a laptop computer of one of the defendants.
See the following sources for further details;
BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17157490
Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/24/alleged-now-hacker-former-army-officer
Independent:
Case represented by Ben Jones, Opus Law.