Life through a lens

Founder and Senior Investigator of Warwickshire Investigation Agency, Maria Cooper, speaks about her new role as the lead detective in the U.K’s No.1 Female Detective Agency

Firstly, let me congratulate you on receiving an award from WAPI (World Association of Professional Investigators) That was quite an achievement in your first year of trading

Thank you. Yes, we were really pleased and honored. It meant a great deal to me personally as I was determined to enter the industry making a significant contribution to private investigation, and to raise the bar on the specialist skill of covert surveillance. So to be recognised by the WAPI Council as Best Newcomer 2008 was a real thrill.

I understand that your background was in Policing as a surveillance specialist?

That’s right. I served for 20 years in the Police specialising in both Royalty and VIP protection officer duties and more latterly as a member of the Force dedicated surveillance team.

Both of those roles must have been interesting, were they challenging?

Yes! But the level of training for both roles is second to none. My training for the protection and bodyguard role was done alongside serving members of the SBS (Special Boat Service) and the role itself brought me into contact with many people I would never have otherwise met. It was quite a privilege

Can you tell us any secrets about the Royals, give us the inside scoop?

Maria Laughs

No, Sorry! my lips are sealed. As I have said, I considered the role to be a privilege, therefore it follows that what I heard and saw is privileged information!

I expect you could write a book with all the stories you must have stored away

I supposed I could and I’m sure it would be a good read, but really, the Royals are people the same as you and I and they deserve their privacy. Their role isn’t an easy one being permanently in the public eye.

Why did you move on from that role?

I had to, it wasn’t from choice. The Police Service at that time imposed tenure of post on specialist departments, which meant that you had to move on. The idea was that experienced officers would be rotated back into uniform on the streets and that in turn would raise the standard of officer, new probationers working alongside officers who had many years service and experience. In truth it didn’t work. It caused a huge slump in moral and in my view was an enormous waste of public money. My training for my specialist roles will have run into many tens of thousands of pounds, then as they moved me on, they had to train someone else all over again. It was crazy!

So, you went on to the surveillance squad?
Yes. I was very fortunate. In my final year on Protection Duties I was approached to fill a place on the upcoming Level 1 surveillance course due to be held in Milton Keynes. My department didn’t have to foot the bill as the space had come about from someone else dropping out. So before I could really think about it I was on the course. I was told that it would be unfair to grade me as all the other people on he course had gone through an interview process to be there, unlike me. I had never really given surveillance a second thought at that time so this was just an opportunity for me and there was no job riding on my pass or fail performance.

How was the course compared to your bodyguard training, easier or harder?

Actually, both are extremely demanding and stretch you in different ways. I was like a duck out of water for the first couple of days, trying to become familiar with all the surveillance speak and set plays. The driving also was very different to the advanced driving skills I had learned previously but I soon settled into the role and really loved it!

I’m guessing that you passed the course?

Yes I did, many didn’t which was a shame because as a team you become quite close. But the right decisions were made. I was told that if I were to be graded on my performance I would have got an ‘A’ grade which would open the role of surveillance specialist to me. If you wanted to apply for Drug squad you had to attain at least a grade ‘B’. So, there it was. Out of sheer luck I had been shown the role that I wanted to specialise in next. I subsequently applied, went through the interview progress and found myself back on another course, this time with the pressure of a job hanging on my result. 3 weeks of intense training again and a really good time was had by all. I got my grade and started my new job just 3 months later.

What did your working role entail?

In a nut shell, intelligence officers around the force would gather information via different sources on high level criminals (committing the most serious of crimes) who were known to be active in a particular police area. Our job as a team was to successfully follow these people gaining further intelligence on their movements and associates, which sometimes led to witnessing crimes being committed. The information was all recorded both photographically and documentary. When crimes were committed we would call in uniform officers to effect the arrest, the criminal never knowing at that stage that he had been followed for the last week, his every move noted. There were times when we were forced to show our hand and effect the arrests ourselves.

Can you tell us about any of those?

Yes of course. On one occasion we followed a drugs runner. We observed him meeting with his ‘boss’ and receiving a jiffy bag full of money in an exchange made in a car. We then followed him into London were we witnessed him exchanging the money for Heroine. We followed him back into the force area and made what is termed a ‘strike’ on the car whilst he was stationary at a set of traffic lights.


Another time we followed a known prolific burglar for the day. He drove around and about all over the show before eventually crossing into Bedfordshire police area. I followed him on foot whilst the rest of the team plotted up around the area effectively sealing the immediate escape routes. I gained access to a lovely old couples garden where through a knot hole in the fence I watched him force the side window of a house, burgle it and exit with his stolen goods in a pillow case which he had taken off one of the beds. I co-ordinated officers on foot at the front of the house to continue observing and to follow him back towards his car whilst I extracted myself and ran to catch up. By the time I reached the roadside, the burglar had got to his car and an arrest had been attempted by another team member. He tried to flee in the car, crushing the female officers legs between his car and one of the covert police cars, then he sped off with half of the team in pursuit. The injured officer was a good friend of mine and as I ran into a neighboring house to phone for an ambulance and launch the force helicopter to assist in the pursuit, I remember my hands shaking terribly.
Strangely, this had all taken place directly outside a doctors surgery and a doctor ran out and administered Pethidine to my colleague who was screaming in pain. In that respect at least we were lucky!

Did the burglar get caught?

Yes, The team were very professional in the light of such stress. He was safely followed at a distance to Milton Keynes where he tried to attack a further female member of the team as she arrested him. He was over powered by her team mate and taken to the police station. He received a custodial sentence for his trouble.

Was the officer with the injuries OK?

Eventually. She went to hospital and the recovery took time but she returned to the same role and carried on undeterred. Remarkable really.

You were medically retired from the police in 2002, what happened to bring that about?

I was unfortunate enough to be the passenger in a police car on two occasions when we were hit by other vehicles. The short story is that I had a disc removed from my neck and metal work implanted in the spine to stabilise the back. I didn’t work successfully within the police service again.

The recovery, both physical and mental was quite lengthy. I had, through no fault of my own, lost my life’s career. I had never done any other job. I joined as a cadet at the age of 17 and now found myself in limbo. That’s quite hard to handle. The police Service that I had served diligently for over 20 years, tried to turn its back on me in an attempt to avoid paying a medical pension. I had to fight long and hard at a time when I had no real fight left. I was fortunate to be supported by a wonderful man called Tony who was my Force representative, a bit like our version of a union rep. He supported me emotionally where he could and fought hard for me, liaising with the force medical officers and the unfeeling senior admin staff who sat in their ivory tower at headquarters.

You sound a little bitter

Yes, sorry about that but frankly I am. I was part of a large family called the police service, to whom I devoted everything. It was a nasty wake up call to realise that actually you weren’t appreciated in the slightest and that you were just a number on a file who was going to cost them money. At one stage my career was reviewed by the senior admin woman when I was off sick recovering from major back surgery. They dragged me into headquarters when it was difficult to sit for any length of time so she could make a decision based on whether they stopped my pay or not whilst I continued to recover. I was grilled over many things for the best part of an hour at the end of which it became apparent that she was under the impression she was talking to an entirely different officer altogether and had to be told by Tony that I was WPC COOPER. It was a hard time but there had to be a future and I decided that it made sense to leverage from the skills the police had taught me that I would be capable of physically performing. Hence my transition into the private Investigation world

You must have been very well qualified to transition with all your Police law training?

Yes and no. Obviously from a criminal law point of view I was and from a skills perspective relevant to surveillance I was. But I recognised that my knowledge of civil law was lacking. So my preparation for establishing Warwickshire Investigation Agency involved undertaking a distance learning course in advanced private investigation through the Institute of Professional Investigators. The course provides a good and comprehensive insight into the world and work of the private detective and helped to educate me in the civil law requirements of the role.

Did you have a particular plan for the direction of the business when you launched in 2008?

Yes. My USP (unique selling point) is my specialist background and investigation skills. Also, I am a woman in a predominantly mans world. In my view, both my experience and the fact I am female makes me fairly unique in this industry. The main core of the business therefore would be based on covert surveillance work

Were you accepted by the men easily?

Actually yes. All investigators will undertake surveillance because it is such a large part of our work. Few though are fully trained professionals in that arena and fewer still are female. I think that helped to become noticed in the crowd of newcomers. I worked hard in the early months to find investigators around the UK and particularly in the midlands on whom I could rely and depend. I targeted the potential skills of surveillance as a priority and vetted many examples of surveillance footage and written records for identifying a potential extended team. That process is still on-going and the team continues to grow.

Do you only use ex police officers?

No. The team leaders and case managers are ex-police and every case comes through me for review and comment. But no, we employ many capable investigators around the UK that do not have police experience. Relative to surveillance, I run my own in-house training for the teams and we train regularly in the art of covert foot and mobile surveillance. We are fortunate enough to have fully equipped state of the art covert surveillance vans at the Agency and all are trained operatives in their use. We also deploy and monitor technical surveillance devices such as GPS trackers and again we train specifically for technical surveillance.

What kind of work do you find you do most of, is it all following love cheats?

No, far from it! We do undertake many cases involving infidelity and cheating partners for our private clients and the intensity of that work took me a little by surprise. Most male investigators don’t relish this kind of work but it is a role that I am very comfortable performing. I am a people person and I think it helps to be female somehow, whether the client is male or female themselves seems to make no difference. They tend to trust a female investigator more for some reason. I guess again my background helps to confirm the level of service they can expect from WIA and goes a long way to dispel the myth of all investigators wearing dirty rain macs and hiding behind lamp posts wearing trilby’s!

So what other kind of work do you cater for?

We do a lot of work with Local Authorities and Housing Associations relative to gathering information via surveillance for anti social behavior prosecutions and crack house closures. We also work with H.R. departments of medium and large sized companies and industries to help provide evidence of fraudulent sickness and injury claims and serious breaches of contract. Such work demands a high level of surveillance expertise to achieve the best quality results, which is after all what we are paid to do. I insist that all surveillance carried out by us is conducted to the same rigorous standards as I used in the police service. That way, no rules get broken and the end product is of a very high standard which will be robust in any court, civil or criminal.

Maria jokes....

I know that it makes me sound a bit OCD and anal and I laugh with my team about it often but honestly I don’t know any other way to work!

I read an article about the recession and how you have contributed towards helping U.K. businesses survive the downturn. Are you continuing with that work?

Yes, very much so. Again, it came along and took me by surprise really. I run a business and I totally appreciate how crippling it can be from a cash flow perspective when the customer doesn’t pay. Many businesses small and large have gone to the wall as a result and its not fair. We offer a ‘locate and trace’ service which initially was geared more for tracing relatives and friends. I modified and extended the service, applied for a Consumer Credit Licence which enabled us to offer a specialised locate and trace service for debtors. It has proved very successful and as a result we have assisted to recover a huge amount of debt on behalf of british businesses which has eased their cash flow issues. The service also works for private individuals in that we trace the debtor and then advise and encourage the client to issue a statutory Demand, which you do not necessarily need a solicitor to do - you can do it yourself or we can do it for you and our process server department will effect the legal service of the document to the debtor. We have found a significant increase in the volume of our process serving on behalf of solicitors and the legal profession since we expanded the service to cover the retire U.K. We find ourselves serving a whole host of different legal papers from non-molestation orders to court warnings, bankruptcy petitions to freezing order and more.

It sounds as though you have established Warwickshire Investigation Agency on the map quite successfully in a relatively short space of time

Yes, as I say I am pleased with our progress so far, the important thing for me is the standard of service being upheld. I ask all of our clients for voluntary feedback at the end of every case and we listen to the comments! It is from these suggestions that some of our additional services have come. It is all about meeting the customer demand and hopefully surpassing their expectations.

So, what is the plan for the future?

For the immediate future? Much of the same. We have a wide variety of specialist services on offer now and that is keeping us busy. I am still very hands on at ground level with the surveillance and investigations and will involve myself in the thick of things every way I can. I love it. It challenges and stretches me and thankfully for my sanity, I have found another niche in life where I can be of benefit.

Interview ends.