The problem with affordable surveillance equipment

A top doctor's perverse campaign of voyeurism unravelled when he accidentally filmed himself on one of the James Bond-style hidden cameras he rigged to watch his victims on the toilet. Depraved NHS consultant Dr Lam Hoe Yeoh, 62, spent three years filming more than 1,000 patients, colleagues, friends and even children as young as three in intimate moments with tiny recording devices concealed in watches, pens and hearing aid boxes.

The world-renowned hearing specialist fed his obsession by using cameras hidden in lavatories at NHS and private hospitals across Britain, his offices, the bathrooms at his £750,000 detached home in Banstead, Surrey, and even trains as he travelled to appointments. But Yeoh was caught red-handed when one of the devices fell off a toilet at a Surrey hospital and a colleague found it. Police later seized tape which accidentally recorded him peering into a spycam as he tried to attach it in footage that would eventually seal his conviction.

Today Judge Warwick McKinnon at Croydon Crown Court condemned Yeoh's 'nefarious and despicable actions' as pictures of the high-tech devices he used in his perverted spying were released by police.

Sentencing him to the 'substantial' jail term of eight years in prison, of which he will serve five years before being released on licence, he said:  'The sheer scale, the gravity, the ingrained and compulsive behaviour demonstrated by the offences is significantly important. 'You are considered a high risk to the public.

'(Had you not been caught), I have no doubt that this prolific offending on a hitherto unprecedented scale would have continued.' One of Yeoh 's victims waved sarcastically as the shamed doctor was led from the court to begin the sentence. 

Speaking outside court, police said Yeoh was 'one of the most prolific non-contact offenders ever investigated'.

Victims as young as three were discovered on a secret stash of 1,100 images and video files hidden in Yeoh's home in Garratts Lane, Banstead, following his arrest on April 14. The disgraced physician was bent double in the dock as he heard his fate, and there were gasps from the public gallery, which was packed with victims, including nurses and doctors, as the sentence was read out. Police discovered Yeoh had inadvertently filmed himself installing it and searches of his offices and home revealed he had amassed a collection of footage.

Investigators said it would take at least two years to examine the huge hoard of digital material on 17 computers, laptops, external hard-drives and memory sticks.

In a sinister twist, the doctor created compilations of his colleagues using the toilets and carefully labelled them with their names, actions and the date. He also edited together footage of him interviewing patients with intimate shots from the toilet, including in some cases images shot from multiple cameras. One of his closest colleagues was unwittingly filmed more than 300 times. Prosecutor Peter Clement said: 'This was a sophisticated, organised, planned and long-running campaign of voyeurism, the scale of which was vast.

'It was beyond anything previously encountered by the Metropolitan Police. His voyeurism targeted colleagues, friends, patients and patients' children, male and female. His intention was sinister, indecent and criminal.

'He grossly abused the very high degree of trust placed in him as a consultant physician as well as a friend and colleague.'

Yeoh worked as a consultant vestibular physician, specialising in hearing complaints such as tinnitus, vertigo and dizziness, after coming to Britain from Malaysia aged 25. He rose through the ranks to become an honorary senior lecturer, expert High Court witness and director of two companies. His two daughters attend Cambridge University and the family were known to neighbours as respected professionals and devout Christians.

But his career came crashing down when a camera was found in a communal toilet at the privately run St Anthony's Hospital, in Cheam, Surrey, on April 14. When police confronted Yeoh, he said: 'Will I go to jail? I was so stupid, don't tell my family. It's not serious – I can't go to jail.'They found 23 covert cameras, which were disguised as computer memory sticks, pens and watches, including three hidden in hearing aid boxes in his car. 

A memory stick he was carrying on a lanyard around his neck when he was arrested carried a short film entitled: 'Cardiff train teenager.'

Computer experts found that Yeoh had used the cameras to film at medical facilities including the private Portland Hospital, in central London, St Helier Hospital and clinics in Exeter, Nottingham, Sutton, and Thames Ditton, Surrey.

Hours of footage was also captured on trains, including a girl, believed to be just three years old. Other victims included friends and colleagues who were invited to his home for social events. Police were able to identify only 32 victims, many of them staff at St Anthony's Hospital. There are at least a further 1,084 unknown victims. Yeoh gave detailed labels to the recordings, which included phrases such as 'sweet young teen' and 'thin young blonde, Exeter'. In mitigation, Yeoh's barrister said he was an obsessive 'collector' who recorded so much material he was unable to view it all.Yeoh admitted seven counts of voyeurism, six charges of making an indecent image of a child and one of possessing extreme pornography. 

Yeoh, who spent much of the hearing weeping with his head bowed and his left hand splayed firmly across his face, showed no emotion as he was led into custody. Speaking outside court, Detective Constable Aaron Moon praised the victims for coming forward. He said: 'I would like to thank all the victims for their fortitude, I would also like to thank the many other hard-working and dedicated health professionals across the south east and around the country that have been affected by this case.

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'With images of people filmed in consultations and lavatories, his footage is truly appalling and abhorrent.

'It has had an enormous detrimental impact on everyone we have spoken to who has come into contact with him.

'It seems he has had no regard or respect for anyone he has come into contact with for many years.'

Mr Moon added: 'We believe he (Yeoh) is one of the most prolific non-contact offenders ever investigated by the Metropolitan Police or any other police force in the country.

'But now the lie he has led for many years has been exposed and he has been forced to answer for his actions.' The judge gave Yeoh limited credit for his guilty plea, but said he considered him a danger to the public.

Yeoh was given an eight-year term for six counts of making an indecent image of a child, of which five years would be served before being released on licence.

He was given 17-month jail sentences for five counts of voyeurism, nine-month terms for two further counts of a similar nature, and a nine-month sentence for possessing extreme pornography.

All sentences will be served concurrently, meaning he will spend five years in prison.

He must also sign the Sex Offenders' Register upon release. Yesterday the court heard Yeoh had applied to be struck from the medical register. Outside court, victims said they were 'relieved' the ordeal was over.

In carrying out his well-organised campaign of making opportunistic images of both adults and children, Dr Yeoh abused his position of trust for his own sexual gratification.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2850147/Married-father-three-consultant-filmed-1-000-patients-colleagues-friend-toilet-hidden-spy-cameras-jailed-five-years.html#ixzz3KCJCYuJo Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Are we born to cheat?

While cheating spouses who get caught are never short of excuses, scientists may have just given them another one after research showed infidelity could be inherited.

Researchers from the University of Queensland found that 63 per cent of unfaithful behaviour in men and 40 per cent in women could be put down to genetic interference.

The team even identified a single gene in women, variations of which could make them more likely to cheat on a partner.

Scientists examined data from 7,300 twins aged 18 to 49, all of whom were in long-term relationships at the time.

Of that sample, 9.8 per cent of men and 6.4 per cent of women had been with two or more sexual partners in the 12 months before the survey.

The team compared data between identical twins, who share all their genetic material, and non-identical twins, whose genetic material differs, it was reported by the Sunday Telegraph.

Genetic modelling was then used to determine how much of the difference was down to genes. Dr Brendan Zietsch, from the university's school of psychology and leader of the study, said: 'Our research clearly shows that people's genetic make-up influences how likely they are to have sex with someone outside their main partnership.

'Isolating specific genes is more difficult because thousands of genes influence any behaviour and the effect of any individual gene is tiny. 'But we did find tentative evidence for a specific gene influencing infidelity in women.' 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2845864/Are-BORN-cheat-Scientists-discover-gene-suggests-inherit-adultery-parents.html#ixzz3JuKDWogf

When did this become acceptable?

When did having an affair become a socially acceptable, even promoted activity in our society? Recently, through an operation, we had the misfortune of having to subscribe to a website that gave married people an environment in which to meet others for infidelity. There was no glossing over what people were there for - in fact their website tagline is 'Life is short. Have an affair' and if their figures are to be believed, there are just shy of 30,000,000 people in the world that agree with them.

Looking through the profiles (who are mainly desperate looking men trying to regain some of their lost youth while fighting a receeding hairline and ever increasing waistline, or 40 something pouting women chasing their secondary school skin glow in vain) it is sad to see how many people value their marriages so little. No one attempts to hide the fact that they are married (there is a category on the site for singles to meet singles) and in fact, many refer to their marriages in their profile bio's. They say they still love their partners but the flame has gone.

So what happened to the days when affairs 'just happened', the result of drunken office parties or a chance meeting with an old flame? When did our society decide that it was OK to just wake up one morning, get the kids ready for school, kiss your wife goodbye and then log on to meet some random desperado for a quick tryst in a Tesco's car park?

Surely, none of us are stupid enough to believe that marriages are all sunshine and fireworks, but when did it become OK to just stop trying to regain the love you once had for your partner and instead immediately start looking elsewhere for fun?

If i could, i would tell the members of these websites to grow-up. Once you get married and have children, its not all about you any more (see this post) and there is more at stake than a quick pump to your under inflated ego.

You took a vowel when you said 'I do'.

Either have the guts to leave your family and go it alone (if that's what you really want to do) or toughen up, go home, delete your online cheating profile and focus on making it better with your partner. The other option is that your partner gets suspicious, calls us, we monitor EVERYTHING you do on your PC, phone and tablet and you get busted.

How to pick the right Private Investigator

We have been in this business for many years, and during that time we have seen companies come and companies go. Some leave little or no trace, others make a small impact and then just vanish into the ether when their owners find the work a little too taxing.

During our day to day operations, we come across these companies regularly. They mystery shop us almost weekly to find what we are offering that they aren't (its amazing how many follow our consultation procedures almost word for word!) how much we charge and what we're doing right that they aren't.

Surfing the web, its almost impossible to decide who to avoid and who to talk to based on websites alone (even the most shambolic company can have an impressive web presence) and it also now seems to be the norm for 'middle men' to promote themselves as your local PI, even when they are based hundreds of miles away and simply farm your job out to whoever is available.

One example of this can be seen by doing a simple search for our area. The words Private Investigator Milton Keynes when typed into Google should give you results for, well, private investigators in Milton Keynes right?! Wrong! The first two companies to appear in the list are these dreaded middle men, farming out your jobs to local agencies you haven't heard of and charging you twice as much for the privilege. Try it, click here and have a look 

So, how do you know who to call and who to choose? Here's a quick checklist to help:

Does their web address contain which ever city you happen to type in? i.e http://p************r-milton-keynes.co.uk/? Chances are this is a middle man registering domain names country wide to try and corner the market. You will pay well over the odds and wont actually know who is running your operation

Do they answer the phone with their company name? 
No? That's because they are answering calls from all over the country from many different websites and cant risk letting you find out. Try asking them who they are when they answer - they wont tell you!

Do they answer the phone at all? 
Are they there when they say they are or are they simply running a part time business and working full time during the day

Are they considerably more expensive or cheaper than other companies you have phoned? It is generally accepted that surveillance costs around £45 to £55 per hour, give or take a little either way. If a company are charging something hugely different to this - why?

Do they bad mouth other companies you say you have spoken to?

This is unprofessional in any industry and should give you a good idea of the sort of people you are speaking to

Are they a cash only (or bank transfer) Agency?
A modern professional company should have the facility to accept your payment by debit or credit card, and that payment should go into a corporate bank account. If someone insists you pay by cash or bank transfer, move on.

Do they take time to find out what your problem is?
If you phone up a PI Agency and ask how much and investigation will cost, a good agency wont be able to tell you. That is because a good agency will take time to find out what you need and tailor a solution to you. If they don't take the time to get to know your situation, how can they possibly expect to be able to help you?

Are they friendly, courteous and professional on the phone?
This is really a bit of a no brainer - in which ever industry you are spending money, you should be treated with respect and courtesy. If the call starts out badly and the Agent is rude or short with you on the phone, would you really trust them to look after you? (You might think this is a bit of a given, but we recently spoke to a competitor who almost shouted at one of our clients on the phone when he asked for a quote...Test them out: you can find them on Google in the first 5 companies to appear here!)

How long have they been in business?
This can be a tricky area as all companies were new once. That said, do you really want to be their test case or would you rather work with a company that have already proved themselves?

Are they happy to come and see you?
No? Hmmmmm......

Are you given the name and direct dial number of the lead Agent looking after your case?
How will you know who to contact with vital information while your case is running? If you cant even get a name of someone to speak to, how can they look after you?

Can you find details of their company on the web, other than their website?
A good Private Investigator will have strong links to the community and will have had their work featured in the press over the years. Take a look at Black Cat in the news here and see how many people we have helped!

Of course, the most powerful tool in your box is your instinct. If something seems wrong with an Agency - move on. If you feel you are being sold to or that the person simply sees you as a number - move on.

Or, simply call any of the team at Black Cat Investigations and we can show you how its done!

It's not just you anymore...

Among the hours of dross piped through the TV into our homes each night, every now and then we see something that makes us think. Last night was one of those occasions.

Flicking through the channels, I came across a documentary following the lives of children going through the education system in East London. Much of the show was focused around the inane banter, successes and failures of our next generation, but one child stood out. Struggling in mainstream classes, the child had already been excluded from one school for bad behaviour before arriving at our shows destination.

The crew followed him over the weeks as he swore at and fought with teachers, disrupted lessons and the work of those around him and went from stand-off to stand-off as the school days went on. For long periods, he was absent from school altogether with his mother unable to get him to attend. The head teacher worked tirelessly with the boy himself and his parents to get him back on track - but it was all in vain. Following a week of absence and then a refusal to leave a class when asked by a teacher after yet another incident of bad behaviour, the decision was made to remove him from the school and try and get him enrolled in a local college that specialised in helping children with special needs.

I am pretty sure you have a mental image by now of what this child looked, spoke and acted like. But you would be wrong. This child was well presented, well spoken and generally well liked by his peers and in fact the teachers (when he behaved!). He was passionate about poetry and showed real flair when presenting Shakespeare to his classmates. He was intelligent and able to apply himself yet, frequently, he flew off the handle and completely broke down.

Take a moment to think about what affliction would cause his behaviour. ADHD, Asperger's, depression, bullying....What's your diagnosis?

This child was suffering from Divorce. He talked opening about the separation of his parents on Christmas day and about how his father leaving had affected him. He talked about how his mother cries and sometimes struggles to cope. His older and younger sisters also attended the school and the program showed them comforting each other during breaks. He talked about how angry he gets when he thought about how his parents have ruined their lives after 20 years of marriage. He told the camera crew that sometimes its all he could think about...

Before their breakup, this child was just another normal student.

When you have a family, you make a commitment to them that you will provide them with a stable home-life. That you will show them what a loving relationship is and that you will help them day to day to be the best people they can be. A divorce destroys that.

Of course, there are cases where parents separate and the children sail through the breakup with few problems. Then there are the cases, like this one, where a separation has such a massive effect on a child that they self destruct, get thrown out of their school and end up in a special needs college. That special needs college may not offer the same opportunities that a mainstream school does and a child's very attendance there will taint their future. Employers may see the education history on a CV years later a decline jobs based on it. Universities may (and many do) exclude children who come from special needs schools.

The child who's parent split up when he was just 12, may just feel the ripples of that every day of their lives.

Think about it.

Have you got what it takes?

As I'm sure you can imagine, we are frequently approached by people looking to start a career as a private investigator and thus thought I would take a moment to detail what qualities I think the role demands.

By far the most common aspect of our job is watching people. Many people think that surveillance is something that anyone can do, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Leave behind your perception of the traditional private investigator, standing in the shadows with his hat pulled down over his eyes hiding behind a newspaper and instead replace that with a perfectly normal looking person sitting in a car on the side of the road for hours and hours on end.

Surveillance is all about patience - watching the same spot hour after hour for the 20 seconds of action that you need to gather your intel. You can't abandon your position through fear of losing this intel which means the only refreshments you have are those that you bought with you and toilet breaks are non-existent.

Imagine sitting in that same spot for hour after hour only to walk away with nothing (your target often won't perform as you would wish) Only to come back the following day and repeat the same exercise all over again - at what point would you lose your patience?

Most people that contact us don't get interviewed as we can see from their CV for the job just isn't for them, but for those that do, a practical interview awaits them. They will receive a briefing document via email with a fictitious case for them to work. The target will be one of our existing agents and the brief will be simple - follow the agent from point A to point B and record their movements.

Around one in 10 people that attempt this fail for the simple reason that they don't have the patience to do the job. They fail by blowing their cover by getting too close, by losing the target altogether or even in one case following entirely the wrong target for a whole day before contacting us to see if he got the job! (This chap, by the way, wholeheartedly argued that he was in fact brilliant at surveillance. When we bought up the small point that he had actually followed the wrong person for the day, he insisted that this was just a minor detail and argued that the surveillance that he had done had been spot on, wrong person or not!)

Contrary to popular belief, being a good Private investigator isn't all about incredible gadgets, high-speed pursuits through the streets or clandestine meetings at abandoned train stations. It is about being able to remain in the same place for a long period of time yet remaining invisible. It is about blending in to your surroundings and making yourself just another passer-by and it is about being able to pre-empt what a target might do to ensure you don't miss that vital bit of Intel.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put you off coming into the field but before you do, why not test yourself... Go and park in your nearest Sainsburys car park and covertly note every fourth person to leave the store. Do this for five hours and let us know how you got on.

You never know, if you have a good list you might just end up working with us...

The great moral question...

In all the years that I have been doing what i do, there have been very few occasions when i have questioned the morality of my role. I believe that i provide a service that helps people to open up to their partners and discuss their relationships free of the lies that affairs create. Most people, after the initial shock of discovery, relish the chance to rid themselves of the guilt that has burdened them and seize the opportunity to make right the things they perceived were wrong in their relationships.

However, there is one case (also famous for being the shortest case in our history at just 24 minutes start to finish!) that stands out in my mind as being the closest i have come to questioning whether what i do is right.

The client call came through at around 1130hrs. The job was a simple one; follow his wife during her lunch break to ease his suspicions about her relationship with her boss. He was insistent that his suspicions would be unfounded and laughed at the idea of even proceeding, but still, he had a nagging doubt that he couldn't put aside and thus we took the details and agreed to feedback following the operation.

Leaving the office, we all believed that this would simply be another hour or two of fruitless surveillance whereupon we could put the clients fears to rest, but this wasn't to be the case. Shortly after arriving at the targets workplace, she appeared alone and was observed walking across the car park. She paused by a 4x4 vehicle and was soon joined by a man who had left the office a minute or two after her. They both climbed into the vehicle, her in the passenger seat and set off, soon blending into the lunchtime traffic. After a few minutes of mobile surveillance, the targets pulled into an area of woodland and shut off the engine. We parked 100 yards or so further down the road and doubled back to scope out an observation point from which we could gather photos.

From our position, we could clearly see and document that target and her associate (who was later confirmed to be her boss) had climbed into the rear of the vehicle and were engaged in sexual activity. At this point, we contacted the client to confirm whether or not he wanted us to break cover to get more a detailed image from inside the car - the target and her associate had dropped down below the window line and thus more detailed pictures would mean standing immediately next to the car shooting in and down. He confirmed that yes, he wanted close up faces and actions documented and thus the order was given to break cover.

We moved quickly back to our vehicle and repositioned it immediately adjacent to the target car. The target and her associate obviously spotted us jumping out but were unable to respond fast enough to our cameras at the windows and thus, our job was done. We got into our car and sped off back to the office leaving them in little doubt that they had just been caught red handed.

The preparation of the report and the download of the images took around 30 minutes and after a quick lunch, we were on our way to the client house to present our findings. He was devastated and told us that he would confront and then leave his wife upon her return. As we left, we met a lady coming in with two happy children in tow. As i passed them on the drive, i thought back to the report i had just handed their father, the report that presented their mothers betrayal, the report that heralded the breakdown of their family unit.

At that point, i wondered whether or not we had done the right thing. Would the affair have just fizzled out in time with no harm done, would it have just been a passing phase that left no-one any the wiser?

On the way back to the office, i called the client and told him that he should give himself time to digest the information before confronting his wife. We talked for around 20 minutes and concluded with him agreeing to stay with his father for a day or two to think things through.

As it transpired, after this period of reflection the client agreed to attend counselling sessions with his wife. As a result, they stayed together, worked through their problems and i am told that they are now as strong as ever. The family stayed together.

Most couples dont separate on the mere suspicion of an affair, most need irrefutable proof and irrefutable proof is what we provided during that day in the woods. So the question that i find myself asking is this: Had the couple of split up based on our evidence for an affair that, like most, may have died out in time without anyone ever knowing about it, would we have been partly to blame for the breakdown of that family...?

Time to put away the swimsuits

So, it looks like the summer may be finally over - The kids are back at school, margaritas sipped over ice on white sandy beaches are but a distant memory and the dark seems to fall ever sooner as we prepare for Autumn. Family life across the country is finally back to normal. 

But normal is a subjective term. For some, normal means back the daily grind of a work/life balance. But for others, normal means that family time is over and the delicate balance between maintaining their homelife and their mistress  can be resumed once again. Cynical? possibly, but nearly all of our clients tell us that the signs of a cheating partner become even more pronounced during the holidays when families spend so much more time together and if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

Take yourself back to the early days of a relationship. It is something we have all experienced: The excitement of being with your new beau and the longing you feel when you are not with them, the all important contact you share when you can't be together like texts, emails and letters and the happiness that comes from planning new adventures together. 

Now imagine what it would be like if something stood in your way of that planning, something that dictated that you couldn't live your life the way you wanted to. In this case, that something is a partner and family.

Day to day you can make excuses for your absence like meetings, trips to the Gym, being stuck in traffic, meeting your friends after work. During the holidays, those excuses aren't available to you and your frustration bubbles under the surface until it can no longer be contained. It manifests itself as the arguments that our clients tell us come out of the blue. The storming out of the house or more passively, a general reluctance to get involved in anything orientated towards the family.

And then, the holidays end and everything returns to a twisted version of normality. So, cynical? possibly. But this cynicism is only based on the lives that our clients lead.

If this sounds like you, maybe we should talk.

Irrefutable proof

People come to us from all walks of life - Rich, poor, young and old, from every corner of the country and they all seek the same the thing: Truth. Black Cat Investigations prides itself on having the skills and the technology to be able to offer our clients irrefutable proof of wrong doing in every form.

Occasionally though, even we have to bow our heads in admiration and acknowledge the power of Karma to deliver the goods on someone that epitomises the word ‘cheater’ on every possible level.

With your permission I will save your blushes and offer only an overview of something that happened recently that offers a lesson to everyone tempted to cheat on their partner...

The rush and the thrill of a ‘liaison’ in a public place has the power to stoke the flames of even the weakest fire. A sun dappled park, the enveloping shadows of a nightclub corner, even the alley of an urban residential estate illuminated by the moon. Or, in this case, the toilet of a major London Railway Station.

Risky? Of course. Romantic? not really. Safe? in a cubicle, to an extent...unless of course, midway during the act you happen to hit the redial button on the cellphone in your back pocket and proceed to broadcast the whole event to your wife.

Like i say, sometimes Karma delivers before we even have a chance to leave the office...

I know I shouldnt say this, but.....

The more I see the Private Investigation industry being dissected on television, the more I despair of the way so called industry professionals portray the business. Demonstrating eqiupment that in 1983 would have been outdated, airing viewpoints and industry tips from people who are generally accepted within the circles of professional PI’s to be just about the worst example of our business and tales of women who, once cheated on, decide to set up their own Agency all add to the argument that our industry needs to be regulated, and quickly.

Black Cat Investigations pride ourselves on offering a service that is second to none and make endless investments in both the training of our field staff and the equipment they use. This in mind, to see someone touting what is arguably the worst GPS tracking device on the market (£150 from eBay) as the lastest in investigative technology and broadcasting to the nation that by simply tying her hair in a ponytail she is able to become a different person (?!) infuriates us beyond all belief.

In reality, you can have an office full of cheap tat - glasses with hidden cameras in them, GPS tracking devices that only last three days at the most, watches that record sound (albeit only about an hour of sound) and clocks that monitor rooms - but none of this equates to what we believe to be the foundation of a good Private Investigation Agency: The Team.

(And for the record, our GPS Tracking devices cost us around £2500 and will track a vehicle for about 6 weeks!)