I am just nosey by nature

LIKE all jobs, Timothy Burchell's business as a private investigator has its ups and downs. Rooting out a wanted murderer from his hideout in the south of France for extradition to the States was "quite scary at times, because I had heard he was a very hard man", admitted Mr Burchell. "I was holed up in long grass doing surveillance from the bottom of his garden for two weeks. The sound of the lawn mower moving towards me wasn't a good moment, but I was pleased when it all worked out and he was arrested." On the other hand, "sitting in the back of a van at two in the morning with a camera, munching mini chocolate bars because I've forgotten to bring anything else, waiting for someone to come out, can be dire. "Then it's seven o'clock and he does come out, there's a rush of adrenalin and I either get the money shot or someone reverses out of a driveway and blocks it. You only get one chance." Picking up business through his website, toting his blackberry and digital camera, working out in the gym and fending off the odd request to track down Manchester United players' home phone numbers, this very modern gumshoe is a far cry from the traditional old raincoat and trilby detective of the past. One of his services is tracing missing people, a task involving many hours of painstaking "sifting through the electoral roll and births, deaths and marriages, sniffing around and knocking on doors". He claims a 97 per cent success rate, but is most proud of finding a child who had disappeared overseas with his mother. "That was really satisfying because the father was so pleased," Mr Burchell said. Not surprisingly, tracing debtors forms a large part of his business these days. "People suddenly wake up to the fact that someone owes them money and call me to track them down. As with all cases, I have to stay quite detached and weigh up the client very carefully. If it's illegal or unethical I won't do it, but you do get a sixth sense," he said. After 12 years in the business, the former financial adviser – the crisp striped shirts and red socks are still a giveaway – has identified certain trends. "February is always a busy time for marital cases. Wives have sat through two weeks over Christmas with the husband disappearing into the toilet with his mobile phone, then they think, 'OK, the credit card is paid off, now I'll catch him out,'" he added. And despite his experience, the former Huntley, Tunbridge Wells, schoolboy is still shocked by the dishonesty displayed by some people. "I had one case where a woman was demanding the marital home plus £100,000 from her husband because she claimed she had a bad back. I went to the stables where she helped out and filmed her shifting bales of straw around and getting on and off horses. The film was shown in court and that was that." However it is bread-and-butter work such as serving divorce-related papers for solicitors which can be the hardest to deal with. "The trouble is you are walking into the unknown. Whereas with most jobs you can scope them out in advance, in these cases you just take instruction from the solicitor," Mr Burchell said. He has been grabbed by the throat by an irate social worker, escaped in the nick of time from a pitbull terrier and narrowly avoided a beating by "a bear of a man who appeared at the door". Mr Burchell admits: "I sometimes wonder why I am doing this, but most of the time I love it. I'm just nosey by nature and very streetwise. You have to have confidence and be prepared to take risks by putting yourself in dangerous situations, but the buzz is amazing." For more details on UK Private Investigators, contact Timothy Burchell on 0800 0431754

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