logo

Why Us?

So, what background should your PES service provider have? We suggest:

  1. Knowledge of, and skill in, fraud recognition and prevention.
  2. Experience of identity fraud, how it's created and used.
  3. The understanding of how organised crime syndicates infiltrate companies using white collar staff.
  4. The ability to develop effective PES programmes.

We have been in business for over ten years and trading under the name of Howells Shepherd International Limited (HSI) since 1997.

We operate as a Fraud and Operational Risk Management Consultancy, full details of which are on our website. Fraud and Operation Risk, as the title implies, links neatly into PES work. At the end of the day, it's the main reason why businesses screen, namely the prevention (risk reduction) of fraud and criminal activity against, and inside, your business - see Reasons to Vet.

Logic therefore suggests your service provider should predominantly have a fraud background, not a commercial one.

Our Managing Director, holder of post graduate qualifications in business studies (1999) (two modules short of an MBA) and graduate Diploma in Anti-Money Laundering (2006), is a former career detective from Scotland Yard's Fraud Squad and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). He was a founder of the Yard's multi-agency taskforce on organised crime syndicates, which identified modern identity fraud techniques and how to deal with them. He helped the US Department of Justice and the US Secret Service understand such practices and how to effectively combat this type of crime. On leaving the Yard in 1995 to set up his own business, he received a personal letter of thanks from the then Director of the FBI, Louis Freeh. He has lectured in the USA, Europe and the Middle East on identity fraud, business infiltration and risk reduction through such methods as enhanced PES. He has extensive networks and sources, both in law enforcement and the corporate environment.

We have not forgotten the advantages of the commercial world, and our Commercial Director, a business graduate from Kingston University and Cranfield University, was a former director of six companies within the UK's largest insurance company, Norwich Union. She had direct responsibility for our PES services.

We think we have a pretty good skill set to help you with your PES programme.