BLACKMAIL EVIL

Hokitika Guardian, 7 April 1932, Page 8

BLACKMAIL EVIL

silence money demanded

CAMPAIGN FOR EXPOSURE

LONDON, April 5;

Blackmailers in Britain who pose as private detectives are to be hounded out of their •‘profession" by the then they impersonate.’ That is the aim oi the British Detectives’ Association, which has been formed mainly "to reform abuses, to 'improve and purify detective methods and to guard against imposition and (fraud by such as do not meet, their obligations.’' ;j The association consists of most of fhe prominent detective agencies hi Britain. No agency will be admitted to membership 'if it has not the highest credentials. “We hope to eliminate from our profession the many blackmailers and otherrogues who infest it,” an official oi the association said recently. “There are a number of men calling 'themselves private inquiry agents or detectives who, after becoming acquainted with the private affair s of their clients, demand large sums of money as the price of silence. There are others who take hundreds of pounds from clients in fees and expenses and make no inquiries at all. ; i"I have heard, also, of cases in'Which, a go-called private detective has, on behalf of a client, shadowed a certain person for; some Itinie, and, after obtaining the necessary information, has gone to him and asked what he' would PAY for that information to be suppressed. This has sometimes occurred in inatrimoniul'inquiries, in which the shijdowed person’ has been a wealthy co-respon-dent. ‘‘ln the unlikely event of an offence of a serious character being committed by any member of our association or anyone employed by him he would be expelled from membership.’’.