SA’s private investigators lift the lid on their secretive industry and what they do

South Australian private investigators lift the lid on their secretive industry and how they crack a case.

South Australia’s private investigators, including Barry Ramsey and Evan Frangos, have given an insight into the mysterious industry.

Whether it’s a partner suspected of cheating, tracking down a long-lost loved one, or investigating suspected insurance fraud, there isn’t much that private investigators across Adelaide haven’t been asked to look into.

Often lurking in the shadows, anonymity their best friend, they work behind the scenes to dig where their clients can’t.

Exactly what a private investigator does is often shrouded in secrecy out of necessity to keep a low profile, but some across Adelaide have lifted the lid on their industry and what drew them to unearthing people’s secrets.

Evan Frangos launched his business, South Australian Private Detectives, in 2020 after a desire to dig deeper drew him to investigating.

“Any day could be different,” Mr Frangos said.

Mr Frangos said one day he could be following a husband or wife suspected of cheating, and the next he could be investigating a cryptocurrency scam or searching for a missing person.

Private investigator Evan Frangos says every day in the industry is different. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“It’s very diverse,” he said.

“It could be anything.”

Mr Frangos said he specialises in cryptocurrency investigations and helps people who have been scammed to get back their money by tracing crypto.

“I get people calling saying they’ve lost $200,000,” he said.

Mr Frangos said he has worked closely with state and federal police, as well as international law enforcement including Interpol and Europol.

Barry Ramsey worked as a private investigator for 32 years, during which his investigations took him to every capital city in Australia.

Mr Ramsey worked as a police officer for 16 years before retiring from the force and using his investigative skills to work as a private investigator and started his own business in 1997.

Much of his work involved investigating people suspected of lodging fraudulent insurance claims and was appointed by the Motor Accident Commission to investigate compulsory third party claims.

Like many private investigators, he was also hired to look into partners suspected of cheating and those who have left a relationship.

“You’ve got to be very careful in that industry,” Mr Ramsey said.

He said tracking down former partners could be fraught with danger.

“When we were requested to do it, I’d get them to come to my office, I’d meet them personally, I would find out some background on them and I’d make sure there’s no intervention order against them finding the person and then if I felt that I could assist the relationship or assist the person, and he wasn’t going to harm her, I would then do some investigation for them,” he said.

Barry Ramsey worked as a private investigator for more than 30 years. Picture: Matt Loxton

There were of course some memorable cases in more than three decades of investigating.

“A guy claimed it (an injury) affected his ability to have sex with his wife and we followed him around and he went to a brothel,” Mr Ramsey said.

The man had claimed it was a house he was visiting rather than a brothel, but a police contact of Mr Ramsey’s confirmed his suspicions.

“It went to court and when it was about to come up, they said to him and his wife ‘you better go out for the afternoon, you might not like what’s about to come up’,” he said.

An investigator at Adelaide Security and Investigations, who has worked in the industry for more than a decade, said his company was often hired to surveil partners suspected of cheating.

“We usually look for red flags,” he said.

“Things like their partner’s being very evasive about what they’re up to, their movements, who they’re seeing.

“They might say they’re going out for dinner with friends but they’re a bit elusive so we’ll follow them on the days or times when they say that they’re supposed to be doing something and usually we’ll find out that they’re doing something else like meeting someone, going to a hotel or motel, someone else’s house and we can follow them and get that evidence.”

Evan Frangos said he often investigates cases where people have fallen victim to cryptocurrency scams. Picture: Ina Fassbender/AFP

In one case, he followed a man whose partner suspected him of having an affair into a restaurant where he was busted being “quite up front” under the table with another woman.

His partner moved out the same day the investigator showed her video he had captured in the restaurant.

He said he was often approached by suspicious partners as a “last resort” but received calls about those cases at least 10 times a month, with 90 per cent of those he surveils caught in the act.

“We’re just providing them with the evidence,” he said.

“We’re not making any assumptions or trying to lead them down the garden path.”

Outside of confirming a suspicious partner’s hunch, he is hired by insurance companies to tail people suspected of fraudulently claiming for injuries that prevent them from returning to work.

“Someone claims they’ve got physical injuries and they’re not able to conduct certain tasks, sometimes we’ll go out and find them mowing the lawn or renovating their house or making trips down to Bunnings,” he said.

“We’re catching a couple of them every month.”

Originally published as SA’s private investigators lift the lid on their secretive industry and what they do