Leading Private Investigator Ron McQuilter featured in NZ Security magazine December/January 2012. Ron McQuilter comments on the recent case of John Cutten Fraudster.Private Investigator NZ, www.paragonnz.com

1. Association News NZIPI
NZIPI AGM
O
n 18 November the NZIPI AGM was held at the The plan is to educate those who might instruct a Private
PWC Tower in Auckland. The elected committee Investigator to ensure they seek “industry accreditation”
can be viewed on www.nzipi.org.nz with only a few beforehand, being membership of NZIPI.
changes to last year and Ron McQuilter CFE being Other topics included our membership of the Crime
re-elected as Chairman. It was clear from the members present Prevention Partnership Forum, our liaison with Police when
that NZIPI continues to be regarded as the Industry Body but lodging complaints on behalf of clients and getting assistance
there are several special tasks for this year’s committee. by Police in the field when on operational assignments and the
The First task revolves around the new Act which allows ongoing battle over access to the vehicle registrar.
persons with no investigative experience to apply for a Certificate The AGM was also an opportunity for our members to get
of Approval (“COA”) as a Private Investigator. Previously, they together afterwards and share war stories. It was a great event
had to; (a) have some relevant investigative experience and (b) the and the new Committee this year includes Nick Thompson from
application was lodged by the licence holder, ensuring that licence Thompson and Clark and Provision Security.
holders only approved those who met the criteria. Now though,
the application for a COA is individual and if applying for a
Crowd Controllers COA, you can simply click every box, say you Fraud Never Sleeps
have no experience and like magic, you get a PI COA, all for the Professional Private Investigators have been involved in many of
same money. the high profile fraud investigations that continue to appear in the
Resulting from this, the NZIPI will be embarking on an media, many never make the headlines of course and many do
education plan and will be providing members with a “Certificate not reveal the work of private investigator to bring the fraud to
of accreditation,” that our members can provide to clients an outcome.
detailing that the member has passed the strict entry criteria One recent example was the conviction of a man at the
and does work to a Code of Ethics. We will of course also be Auckland Court in November on 53 Indictments of fraud of
lobbying for a change to the PI COA process with the MOJ. over $1m, a case that would never had seen the doors of the
Courthouse had the file not been prepared and presented to
Police in accordance with the Police/NZIPI Memorandum of
Understanding.
The thing that did amaze our members when networking after
our AGM was that virtually everyone was actively involved in
some large scale theft or dishonesty investigation and there was
no sign of that slowing up. In every aspect of commerce there
was an investigation occurring, and most had been uncovered
only after being perpetrated for years.
Our members comprise from a wide range of expertise and all
have their own networks that refer business to them from retail,
industrial, finance, government and the private sector. The most
common assignment related to internal fraud which of course
begs the question of what is financially still occurring, unknown
while the business is closed for the night.
Ron McQuilter is the current chairman of the NZIPI and is
Managing Director of Paragon Investigations
Ron can be contacted by email: Ron.McQuilter@paragonnz.com
58 December 2011 / January 2012 NZ Security