Do I Need Consent to Investigate Someone?

In the UK, private investigations are legal as long as:

• Information is gathered through lawful means (no hacking, trespass, or harassment).
• The investigation complies with the Data Protection Act 2018 (GDPR) and the Human Rights Act 1998.
• The activity is proportionate to the purpose (e.g., gathering evidence for a custody case, verifying fraud, tracing a beneficiary).

This means you can instruct us to investigate an individual, business, or employee without their knowledge, as long as the methods used are legal.

Investigations are designed to uncover truth in situations where consent would compromise the outcome. For example:

• A partner suspected of infidelity is unlikely to consent to surveillance.
• An employee committing fraud will not agree to monitoring.
• A missing beneficiary cannot provide consent if their location is unknown.

Without discretion, investigations would lose their purpose.

At Panthera Investigations, we balance your right to the truth with the subject’s right to privacy. We will never:

• Engage in harassment or intimidation.
• Break into private property or access accounts illegally.
• Collect irrelevant or excessive information.

Instead, we use professional, proportionate methods to obtain evidence that is factual, ethical, and court-admissible.