GUIDES & TRAINING
Learn to run the whole investigation.
Practical guides written for professional investigators — from comparing two witness statements to building a report that survives a lawyer. Complete and useful on their own; every method here is a way to surface leads, never to declare a verdict.
How to Compare Two Witness Statements (and What to Look For First)
A practical, step-by-step method for comparing two witness statements — what to read first, how to line up the accounts, and how to tell a real contradiction from an honest gap.
The 10 Contradictions Checklist: What to Flag When Statements Don't Line Up
A 10-point checklist of the contradictions worth flagging in witness statements — time, place, sequence, omission and more — each with the innocent explanation to rule out first.
How to Investigate Petty Cash Theft: The Imprest Method, Step by Step
A step-by-step guide to investigating petty cash theft using the imprest method — how to reconcile the tin, spot the common schemes, and separate a real shortfall from sloppy records.
Bank Statement Analysis for Investigators: The Bank Deposits Method, Plainly
A plain-English guide to the bank deposits method — how investigators use bank statements to estimate hidden income, step by step, with the innocent explanations to rule out first.
The Unexplained Wealth Toolkit: Net Worth and Source-and-Application Methods
How investigators prove unexplained wealth using the net worth method and the source-and-application (expenditure) method — the logic, the steps, and the innocent explanations to test.
How to Write an Investigation Report That Survives a Lawyer
How to write an investigation report that holds up under legal scrutiny — structure, the fact-versus-inference rule, sourcing every claim, and the mistakes that get reports torn apart.
Chain of Custody: A Practical Guide for Small Teams
A practical chain-of-custody guide for small investigation teams — what it is, why cases collapse without it, and a simple procedure you can run without a forensics lab.
Workplace Investigations: Balance of Probabilities, Procedural Fairness, and Where They Go Wrong
How workplace investigations actually work — the balance-of-probabilities standard, procedural fairness, and the common mistakes that get findings overturned on appeal.
SCAN Statement Analysis: What It Is, What It Isn't, and the Leads-Not-Verdicts Rule
A clear, honest explanation of SCAN (Scientific Content Analysis) — how statement analysis works, what the markers mean, its real limits, and why it produces leads, not verdicts.
Benford's Law and Four Other Tests That Surface Cooked Books
Benford's Law and four other analytical tests — duplicate, gap, relative size factor and ratio analysis — that surface irregularities in financial data, explained plainly for investigators.
The Contemporaneous Diary: Why Cases Die Without One
Why a contemporaneous diary makes or breaks an investigation — what 'contemporaneous' really means, what to record, and how good notes protect your evidence and your credibility.
Pressure-Testing Your Own Case Before the Defence Does
How to red-team your own investigation — find the weaknesses, alternative explanations and admissibility risks before the defence does, using a structured devil's-advocate method.
How to Spot Contradictions in Witness Statements
A practical method for spotting contradictions in witness statements — the four questions that surface real clashes, and how to tell a meaningful inconsistency from ordinary human memory.
Timeline Reconciliation: Building One Clear Sequence From Many Accounts
How to reconcile several accounts into one clear investigation timeline — extracting events, handling vague times, flagging gaps and contradictions, and why the timeline is the backbone of a case.
Investigative Interviewing: The Questions That Actually Open a Case Up
How to run an investigative interview that gets reliable information — open questions, the funnel technique, avoiding leading questions, and the free-recall-first approach that gets the most from a witness.
Chain of Custody for Digital Evidence (Photos, Phones, Exports)
How to preserve the chain of custody for digital evidence — photos, phone data and file exports — using hashing, working copies and metadata, so it survives challenge in a hearing or court.
Preparing a Case for Prosecution: The Handover Pack That Holds Up
How to prepare an investigation for prosecution — building a handover pack that a prosecutor can run with, from the case theory to the evidence schedule, disclosure and the loose ends.
The Polygraph Pre-Test Statement: Getting a Clean Written Account First
Why a clean written statement before a polygraph matters — how a pre-test account sharpens the examination, what to capture, and how statement analysis turns it into better questions.
Workplace Investigations in South Africa: CCMA, Fairness and the Paper Trail
A plain-English guide to workplace investigations in South Africa — substantive and procedural fairness under the LRA, how the CCMA tests a dismissal, and the paper trail that protects you.
Petty Cash Reconciliation: The Imprest System Explained for Non-Accountants
Petty cash reconciliation explained in plain English — how the imprest system works, how to reconcile the tin step by step, and the simple controls that stop petty cash walking out the door.