Private Investigators London & UK

Private investigators in London and across the UK. Surveillance, tracing, OSINT, fraud, corporate and digital investigations, by lawful means, with fixed quotes in writing.

Investigation Bureau: UK private investigators. To reach an investigator, send a confidential enquiry, book a call back or email [email protected]. We reply within one working day. Investigation Bureau is a trading name of Bureau Nine Ltd, company number 17484009, registered with the ICO as a data controller (ZC259849).

What we do

Investigation Bureau is a UK firm of private investigators working in London and across England, Wales and Scotland. We are instructed by private individuals, solicitors and businesses who need a question answered with evidence and not assumption: where someone is, what they are actually doing, who they really are, or where money has gone.

Every instruction begins with a free, confidential conversation with an investigator, is quoted as a fixed price in writing before any work starts, and ends with a written report you can act on and, where it matters, that a court can rely on.

What we investigate

Covert Surveillance. What someone actually does, observed and logged to a standard a court will accept.

People Tracing. Lost family, debtors, beneficiaries and witnesses, found by lawful means.

Matrimonial & Infidelity. A private question answered with evidence, so the decision is yours to make.

Fraud Investigations. Who did it, how, and where the money went, set out for a bank, insurer or court.

Corporate & Due Diligence. Know who you are appointing, buying from or going into business with.

Workplace Investigations. Absence abuse, theft and misconduct, evidenced lawfully and fit for a tribunal.

Cyber Investigations. When the wrong was done online, the evidence is online too.

OSINT Investigations. Identity, footprint and background from open sources, every search on the record.

Vehicle Tracking. Trackers deployed only where the lawful basis has been established first.

Bespoke & Specialist. Bug sweeps, asset tracing, process serving and the cases that fit no category.

How a case runs

Listen. You tell an investigator what has happened and what you need to know. Nothing is too small or too awkward to say.

Advise. We tell you what can lawfully be established, what it is likely to involve and what it will cost, as a fixed figure in writing. If you do not need an investigator, we say so.

Investigate. The smallest operation that will answer the question, run by an investigator who is accountable for it, with the lawful basis recorded before work begins.

Report. A clear written report with the evidence behind it: dated, timestamped and prepared so that a solicitor, a tribunal or a court can use it.

What we will not do

We do not intercept calls, messages or emails. We do not access phones, accounts or devices without authority. We do not obtain bank, phone or medical records by deception. We do not deploy a tracker without a documented lawful basis, and we do not trace a person so that they can be harassed, stalked or confronted. An investigator who offers any of these is offering you a criminal offence and evidence no court will accept.

How to choose a private investigator in the UK

The UK does not license private investigators, so choose on evidence. Is there a registered company you can look up, and a named person accountable for the work? Is the firm registered with the ICO as a data controller, and can it state the lawful basis for what it proposes? Does it give a fixed price in writing before work starts? Are its reports prepared to a standard a court, tribunal or insurer will accept? Does it refuse unlawful work? Investigation Bureau is a trading name of Bureau Nine Ltd, which is registered at Companies House (17484009) and with the ICO (ZC259849), and the named person accountable for its work is Kris Koos, founder and lead investigator, ten years in UK private investigation. Our guides on how to check a private investigator is legitimate, how to hire one and what investigators can and cannot lawfully do go through the checks in detail.

Open-source intelligence

OSINT investigations are a core discipline here, not an add-on: identity attribution, social media evidence, digital footprint assessments, due diligence research and the mapping of fraud infrastructure, run on tools we built in-house and produced to an evidential standard. Start with what an OSINT investigation is, social media investigations and what is lawful, or OSINT for solicitors and litigation.

Tools we built ourselves

We build our own investigation tools and do not rent them: an open-source intelligence console that logs every search against the case, a monitoring desk for cross-border and time-critical work, and our own evidence infrastructure. None of it intercepts communications, accesses accounts without authority or trades in stolen data. Read about the technology behind a Investigation Bureau case.

Areas we cover

Investigation Bureau works across England, Wales and Scotland, with dedicated local pages for London, South London & Surrey, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Cardiff, Cambridge, Oxford, Southampton, Portsmouth, Reading, Milton Keynes, Leicester, Norwich, Brighton, Bournemouth. Cross-border work is handled with trusted partners. All areas we cover.

Questions people bring us

How do I find a lost friend in the UK? · How do I find a long-lost family member? · How do I find someone's address lawfully? · How do I find a missing person? · Can I hire a private investigator to follow someone? · Who is behind an anonymous account? · How do I prove fraud? · What does a corporate investigator actually do? · What does a private investigator cost? · What can a private investigator legally do in the UK? · How do I check a private investigator is legitimate? · Is it legal to hire a private investigator? · How do I hire a private investigator? · What is an OSINT investigation? · Are social media investigations lawful?

Speak to an investigator

Free, confidential, no obligation. Send a confidential enquiry and an investigator will reply within one working day. Read our investigation guides, illustrative case stories, or the areas we cover.

Sister service: Trace Bureau is our fixed-price address tracing service, for anyone who only needs a current UK address for a lawful purpose. Charged only when we find them. Investigation Bureau is a Bureau Nine company.