.jpg)
Down Under Investigations – The Truth
Down Under Investigations – The Truth
Missing Bung, Process Serving 101, Mike The Law Firm Manager, Online Safety For Kids
In this episode we cover topics such as:-
1- The Search For Bung Siriboon;
2- What is Process Serving?;
3- Interview - Meet Mike, The Law Firm Manager in Melbourne;
4- Keeping Kids Safe Online;
Got a question for our podcast or do you need to contact Simon and the Down Under Investigations team? Simply email info@downunderinvestigations.com or call 1300849007 or check out www.downunderinvestigations.com
Welcome to another episode of Down Under Investigations the Truth. Our host, Simon, has over 20 years experience in the private investigation industry, and he leads the team at down under investigations who pride themselves on their professionalism, integrity, and ability to get results. This podcast will open up the world of private investigations, discussing real life cases, latest news, surveillance, and skip tracing techniques, legal issues, and support. Let's jump in and join Simon. Now
Speaker 2:On the morning of June 2nd, 2011, 13 year old Siria C, who's also known as B, went missing while she was walking to her school in Barona in Melbourne, Victoria. She's not been seen at all since that day. On the morning of June 2nd, she left her home in Barona to walk alone to school. She usually met up with friends along the way, and it was only a short 10 minute walk. At around 8:30 AM she left her home to walk to school. Her usual route would be across Ellc Street and then follow it east to Albert Avenue on the way to Har Court Road. Then she would turn left at Moncho Street, which contained the back gate entrance to her school. An nearby neighbor said that they saw her walking along Elsie Street that morning. They also spotted her on Har Court Road, which was only about 130 meters from the entrance to the school. However, B never arrived at school that day. Her mother, Vanita and stepfather Fred, were only made aware of her disappearance when she didn't return home. That afternoon, a friend phoned to speak to Bung and then advised her parents that bung wasn't at school all day. At around 4:20 PM her parents went to the school to look for B. They then attended their local police station to speak with the police who advised the parents to call her friends and family to see if anyone had seen a following B'S disappearance. Police ses and volunteers spent days extensively searching areas around Barona. They went door to door, looked through shops, parks, vacant blocks and homes. They monitored the activities of other individuals who had been through Baron on that day. They also examined CC CCTV footage from various areas, including local service stations and shopping centers. Police questioned local sex offenders and examined over a thousand pieces of information from the general public. The police also looked into the activities of B stepfather, Fred and other male individuals who were close to her. However, they did not find any evidence at all suggesting that they were involved in her disappearance. Police then concluded that she had been abducted either by force or coercion into a car in broad daylight. The lack of evidence suggesting that anyone saw anything during this time when she was last seen is also very surprising. In November, 2011, police established task force humor to investigate the disappearance of B. During the course of this investigation, detectives of the task force visited over a thousand homes in Bar. They also interviewed over 250 sex offenders, despite massive efforts. After two years, the task force was shut down with no sign of B. In 2013, Victoria Police announced that they had arrested a man who claimed that he had accidentally killed bung whilst he was driving. He stated that he had buried her body in panic in a local reserve. Police then searched his car and the reserve where he claimed to have buried the body. He was later released after they could not find any evidence linking him to the disappearance of B, and they obviously couldn't find the body either. One of the individuals interviewed by the police was Robert Knight, a sex offender who lived in Barona. However, he was later ruled out as a suspect. Police also considered Mr. Cruel a suspect due to his past activities in Melbourne during the eighties and nineties. However, the abduction was not in line with his usual methods or previous actions. Police released further information to the public in 2014 and 2016 about possible sightings of the missing teenager. These sightings were reported during the days following her disappearance. Both reports identified a teenage girl fitting bangs with description in a white station wagon. The first sighting reported was approximately 15 minutes after she had left for school. It was reported that an Asian girl was seen in a white Ford Falcon vehicle that was traveling on Barona and Floris and roads. Police described the driver of the vehicle as a Caucasian male in his late fifties to early sixties. The second potential siding was approximately 12 kilometers away in the suburb of Monroeville. Police have not updated the case since this time. Due to advancements in technology and the number of people reporting information to police regarding missing persons cases, Victoria Police are hoping that they can finally solve the case of missing individuals such as the disappearance of teenager bs Boone B's. Parents still hold out hope that she will be found alive and well.
Speaker 3:We, we cope by supporting each other, praying, um, trying not to think too much about the negatives, try to still believe that she's alive and she's coming home.
Speaker 2:Our thoughts go out to the friends and the family of bung, and we also do hope and pray that she's found alive and well one day. And please, if you have any information about this case or any other that you can share with Crime Stoppers, you can do so without saying who you are or getting too heavily involved. Rewards are available. The phone number for Crime Stoppers is one 800 triple three triple oh, or you can go to their website@crimestoppers.com.au. We've been emailed a great question from Joan. Joan asks, what is process serving? You've talked about it a lot in your podcasts, and we'd like to know what it is and how you go about it. So if you could explain, that would be great. The term process service refers to the process of providing legal action notice to another party, such as a defendant, a witness, a respondent, a lawyer, in order to enable them to respond to the court's proceedings. This process is carried out by a process server who delivers a set of court documents to the individual that's being served. In some cases, it is necessary to serve legal documents personally and attempt to obtain a signature from the individual. There's other occasions where services affected by handing to or leaving in front of the individual to be served, or a fellow resident at their home address age over 16 years. There's also instance where documents are required simply to be served by a post or registered post. Whilst it appears to be quite simple, the procedure can be difficult and is best handled by experienced agents and licensed private investigators. Process server can encounter an evasive or an aggressive individual, and often a period of surveillance or a skip trace is required to affect service. We've had a file this morning with one of my team on the road, contacted the office and said, oh, they don't live at the address anymore. Within three minutes, we'd conducted a skip trace, found a new address, which was about 10 minutes away and got the document served. It's a great service for our clients because it means they don't have to worry. There's no delay, there's no time that we have to wait or, um, that's, that's why we prefer to serve and, uh, do skip tracing while we're on the go. An individual cannot simply refuse to be served. If an evasive individual refuse to take the documents from the hands of our process server, there's certain procedures that we can follow in order to serve this individual. They include the following. We can leave the documents on the ground in front of the individual and advise them they've been served. We can apply to the courts for a substituted service order, enabling proper service to be affected via post or hand delivery to the front door or letter box of the address. There's also avenue for hand delivery to another person at residents, uh, aged over 16 years or to the person's place of employment to a person apparently in charge of the workplace, again, aged over 16 years. So there's occasions recently where certain documents have been able to be affected via email a judge has ordered. Yep, you can serve that via email and, uh, as long as you get a read receipt or even without a read receipt, as long as you put in affidavit that you've sent it to that address, we'll class that document as having been served. There's also even more recently times where judges have allowed documents to be served via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. These are very rare occurrences. They're not very standard, and they're only via court order. Magistrates and judges strongly prefer personal hand delivery of paper, copy of the documents to the individual being served. If service is not properly affected, the individual who's been served or not served can contest service and apply for any orders and costs made as a result be overthrown and paid by the plaintiff or the applicant. There is a warning, however, most process servers will carefully document and record evidence of process serving. There'll be video, there'll be sometimes photographs. There'll be contemporaneous notes. So if contesting service, make sure you only contest service if you are certain that it never took place. Process servers will attend court. They'll give it oral evidence in such cases, and they'll produce the evidence. They'll produce the video footage, they'll produce the photographs, they'll produce the notes. And in our experience, the magistrate will always accept that evidence. Sometimes an individual will choose to use a friend or family member to serve documents, but can you imagine the problems that that would present itself? There's been situations where a, an ex has got their new partner to go and serve their old partner with maybe divorce papers, and that has ended in violence abuse. Uh, it's just not a good situation. Why would you put the life of a loved one in a potentially volatile situation? And on the other hand, are they aware of all the reporting and affidavit requirements in regards to the documents? This is why we strongly recommend and highly recommend using the services of a licensed professional experienced private investigator to affect process service. They'll be aware of the procedures, they'll be prepared for the dangers, and they'll know what the paperwork and reporting and affidavit situation is for each document. They'll have the experience when dealing with an evasive or an aggressive defendant or respondent. We've got a network of agents wide that assist us with serving all documents, all jurisdictions. And we'd love to hear from you if you have documents that need served or if you know of someone who needs some documents served. We've got very reasonable rates, always happy to assist. We also provide great prices for law firms and ongoing clients. Thank you, Joan, for that Great question. Hopefully that, uh, has helped you get your head around what process serving is and how we go about it.
Speaker 1:Got a question for Simon and down under investigations, we are running a questions of the month competition. If your question gets answered by Simon, we will send you a prize valued at a hundred dollars. To ask your question, simply use the contact page on our website at www.downunderinvestigations.comoremailpodcastdownunderinvestigations.com.
Speaker 2:Very excited right now to introduce to you, uh, Mike, who is the manager of a law firm in the center of Melbourne cbd. He's been managing that law firm for over 20 years. He's a great colleague of down Under Investigations. We appreciate you, Mike. And uh, first question I've got for you is, how and why did you choose to commence a career in the legal industry
Speaker 4:Over 20 years? Thanks for making me feel old. That's fine,
Speaker 2:<laugh>.
Speaker 4:Um, look, I, I feel like, uh, my career was almost chosen for me. Uh, you know, my father was, uh, a criminal barrister and, um, I was sent to a good school and I sort of, it all, I, it all just sort of flowed from there. One could say I'm, uh, legacy legal in the industry.
Speaker 2:Oh, very good. Very good. And, uh, did you make the choice though, or was it forced upon you
Speaker 4:<laugh>? Um, little outta column A and a little outta column b I, uh, I did choose it, but it was also, uh, um, where I could actually help people fix problems and I like solving problems and, and fixing problems and helping people. So it wasn't a hard choice.
Speaker 2:Very good. Um, next question I've got for you is, what area of law do you specialize in?
Speaker 4:Um, look, uh, we, we do quite a range. Like, uh, we've got civil law, we do debt and, uh, and damages claims as, you know, because we, uh, we do a lot of that with yourself. We also do some contract law and defamation. Um, we've got large and small clients, but, um, basically we, uh, we try and help the individuals, um, who need our help. Uh, so I know it sounds broad, but it, it all falls under civil law really.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. And, uh, what about family law and wills and those sorts of things?
Speaker 4:Um, no, we, uh, we kind of leave that to the, uh, the family law specialists ourselves. Um,
Speaker 2:Okay, there you go. There you go.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we can do it. But, uh, I would recommend to people, uh, to go to a family lawyer directly, uh, instead of a general law practitioner. Uh,
Speaker 2:Ah, that's fair enough.
Speaker 4:It's that specialized and you, you do need to know what you're doing. There's a couple of minds there. If you don't, uh, know where you're looking for.
Speaker 2:Fair enough, fair enough. And,
Speaker 4:And the other thing is it changes so often, family law,<laugh>,
Speaker 2:<laugh>, that's true. And there's always updates coming out from the courts. I mean, with covid and everything, there's a lot of changes and you've gotta stay on top of all those changes. And, um, yeah.
Speaker 4:Cause it's like we've discussed in, in the past, you've gotta, you've gotta stick with a lawyer who specializes in that area. You having a family lawyer or general lawyer is okay for some minor civil stuff, but the minute you actually start getting into a specialized area, it, it really does pay to have a specialist, um, lawyer or a solicitor in the, who specializes in that field.
Speaker 2:Fair enough, fair enough. Uh, well, another question I've got for you is, what advice would you give a young lawyer who is starting out, or a young person who is interested in becoming a lawyer?
Speaker 4:Okay. Um, well, obviously there's, uh, there's the usual advice of study a lot<laugh> and do well at school, but, um, I, I find that reading a lot would be a good start because there is a lot of reading in this job. Ask a lot of questions, um, and be open to the answers because, uh, Laura is one of those things that's quite subjective sometimes. So it can be, it can be, uh, opinionated. Some people will say that, uh, the, the, the sky is blue, some will say the sky is green. You've gotta listen to the arguments as to why each, uh, each answer's being given and then put forward your best answer or your best argument in that role. Um, as you know that, uh, uh, all lawyers are not always right. Cause if you go to court, 50% of lawyers fail on any day that a judge is sitting. So you just gotta be willing to have an open mind and, uh, be willing to learn and, and learn the best practices, I think is a good, uh, is a good, some good advice.
Speaker 2:Very good. Very good. Any other advice you've got there?
Speaker 4:Yeah, choose an area of law and, uh, and, and, and, uh, and study or find out and, uh, you know, stick your nose into that area of law that you want to practice in. And really just focus on, on learning the intricacies of, of that area of law. Because I think that, um, if you, it's easier to have job satisfaction if you fully understand the job you're doing. You know, find, uh, find the good operators in the, in that area are the good lawyers who specialize role models, observe the way that they, uh, they conduct themselves and try and, um, figure out the way that they think. And, and there is no, there is no shortcut here. You've gotta, you've gotta put in the hard yards.
Speaker 2:That's brilliant. Brilliant answer. Uh, next question.<laugh>, next question. Oh, there you go. There you go. Um, so how has the partnership between your firm and down under investigations helped you, hope it has helped you<laugh>?
Speaker 4:Ok, let's, let's start with the, a question that wasn't asked, um, down under investigations has helped us,<laugh>, we've been using down under for, oh God, how long do you think it's been? Or it'd be over 15 years, wouldn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, around 15 years. I, I did some calculations.
Speaker 4:Oh, well, um, let's say, uh, around 15 years. Um, we've been using, uh, down under investigations a lot for it. I think I mentioned it earlier for when we come to, uh, debt and civil, uh, civil damages and civil claims. Um, we use down under investigations to, to, to, uh, locate, uh, the defendants that, and, and, um, that we wanna serve with documents or sometimes witnesses that we wanna serve, documents. Not everyone we speak to as a defendant. Um, yeah, I think, uh, locating and serving, uh, our, the people that we need served is the, the biggest thing that we, uh, that we really appreciate your help with. Um,
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Good to hear
Speaker 4:Is a, there is a back end to what you guys do though, and that's, you know, sometimes it's not about finding the people, it's about finding that there's no point suing the people. Um, sometimes you guys have, uh, looked into assets and, uh, or trying to find the assets and liabilities of defendants and or, and or defendant companies or, or entities. And, uh, sometimes it's just a complete and utter waste of time chasing someone because they just don't have it. And that's, that's service to our clients when we actually advise them that there's just no point, uh, trying good money after bad sometimes, but that, that's not always the way. But it is a, it is a nice thing to be able to give our clients that, uh, that option because the last thing that we wanna do is Sue, get a great result, be told that they're going bankrupt, and then get blamed for the result. Also,
Speaker 2:<laugh>. Well, that's right. Some clients are, uh, after the principle, I guess, of bankrupting a defendant. Others, uh, don't want the bankruptcy to go through. They just want their money<laugh>, because,
Speaker 4:Uh, unfortunately that's a song for us for some solicitor's ears. I it's not about the money, it's about the principal. Some lawyers, uh, rub their hands together at that stage because the principal's about to cost<laugh>.
Speaker 2:That's right. And how does our process serving, uh, services help you guys?
Speaker 4:You guys are great in that. Uh, I just love giving you the, uh, the documents and then, uh, stepping back, you'll, you'll get it back to us when it's done. It's usually done in a timely fashion. But I love the fact that we don't have to find different states and, and explain different things to you. You know, you, you guys serve in, uh, in all the facets, the family and, and, um, the federal courts and the, and, uh, you know, all of our doc, all of our documents just go to you and they just come back and it's great. And I love that, um, that even when you can't find someone, you start on the ground trying to find out where they moved to or whatever, we don't have to send you back or engage you again to, to, uh, to start making inquiries that you could have made at the scene. So for all those listing down under investigations do a great job with that. They're<laugh>, their guys are all, uh, trained investigators, and they, uh, they poke around the minute they can't find someone. So it's, uh, it's actually quite cost effective that way too, because you don't have to go back there.
Speaker 2:Well, that's right. That's right. And that's why we skipped Trace when we're on the road just simply to get the timely result. Um, there's no point sending reports back and forth, back and forth without actually making some effort first to, yeah, locate the defendant or the witness that, uh, has moved address,
Speaker 4:Which, uh, happens more often than, uh, people may think.
Speaker 2:Well, it's amazing how often, uh, I guess, and it's not, not your fault at all, but, uh, the client, uh, maybe hasn't been able to achieve or obtain full address of someone or their phone number or they, well sometimes cause they just have incomplete details. Well, they have provided the false address as well. That definitely does happen,<laugh>. So what's your most memorable result that, you know, we've helped you accomplish, um, that we've worked on for you?
Speaker 4:Most memorable result? Um, it would probably be that, uh, that company that I'm not gonna mention. Um, so recently to all our listers recently we had a, uh, the director of a company that was, uh, the company claimed to have no assets, um, at all and made us a fairly dismal offer to settle. Um, our client was happy to put some money in. We got, uh, down under investigations do a bit of a poke around. We were able to find three other companies that he was using an alias for. Those companies, uh, were were holding properties and assets. Um, and I think, uh, he'd not long transferred some assets out of the, uh, defendant company to family members. And based on the
Speaker 2:Information Yes, that's
Speaker 4:Right, based on the information you guys gave us, we were able to, uh, make an application to well provide that, uh, to the, eventually to the liquidator who called back those assets and, uh, was able to, uh, obtain, uh, very large pay for clients. I won't, uh, mention the numbers, but, um, they're very large in eye watering.
Speaker 2:Oh, well that's, that's great to hear. That's great to hear. Not, not. Well that's, um, that's fantastic.<laugh> no, not for that. Defendant. Uh, well that's what happens, you know, they can, they can do what they do, but we are gonna find the information. We're going to, you know, send that information through and you'll do what you do and the liquidator will do what they do. So try and hide your assets. We'll find them and, uh, yeah, clients get the results. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Probably cost him a lot more in the long run anyway. Can run. Only catch<laugh>. Exactly, exactly. Thanks so much for your time, Mike. Thanks for talking to us today. We really appreciate the partnership. Um, and you know, I appreciate you trusting us with your files and, um, yeah, hopefully we've got a, a long, uh, future ahead of us together working, uh, in, uh, in this great city of Melbourne.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no worries. Is this where I chase you up for all the files that we are waiting for or we just say goodbye,
Speaker 2:<laugh>, is this where I chase you for unpaid invoices? Good to talk to you. Take care. We'll talk soon. It's time for your favorite segment, folks, it's time for our top five lists. Today we're gonna talk about the top five ways to keep children safe online. Number one, talk openly with your child about their online activity. When your child starts using the internet, talk to them and talk about what they are doing and what they are reading. Also, ask them about the apps and sites that they intend to use. Keep in mind that this may be different for what other parents are allowing their kids to do. Talk to your child about what is right for them and how they should be prepared for the future. It's important to remember that they'll eventually be able to access the internet outside of your home. Set clear boundaries for how much time your children can use devices and remain online for. If you allow your child to use social media, be sure to teach them these three things. One, how to block someone. Two, how to report inappropriate or offensive posts. And three, how to keep information private. Okay. The second way to keep children safe online is keep screens and devices where you can see them. Make sure you monitor your child's online activity, especially when it comes to the younger ones. Having a central location where you keep track of what they're doing is also important. You can set up a wifi passcode for your mobile device so that they can prevent access to the internet without your knowledge. When it comes to keeping track of your kids' online activity, you can also check their browser histories and see what sites they've been visiting. This method can be hard to implement as they get older, but we believe that if you start younger and set clear boundaries, then you'll be able to see their history. Number three, know your parental controls. It's important to understand how to use various search restrictions and parental controls, which are offered by browsers, internet providers, and devices. For example, Google's safe search feature will block sites that contain explicit sexual content. Although these controls are not always accurate, they can help prevent kids from accessing or viewing inappropriate content. Number four, know your child's online friends and who they are. Although it's common knowledge that some people online aren't who they claim to be children and young people can be very naive about who they're chatting with. If they're not taught about cyber safety at an early age, make sure that you become friends with your child's social media accounts and monitor their posts. Children may resist, but you are the parent. They have to understand that you will allow them to access the internet if they meet these certain conditions. And number five, be share aware to protect your privacy. Children should be aware of the associated risks with sharing and posting personal information online. While they may not understand the consequence of doing so, they should be taught to be more thoughtful and cautious. When it comes to sharing and posting. Encourage your children to ask themselves if they would give that information to a stranger, if it included their name, address, location, or email. If the answer is no, don't post it. And that's the top five ways to keep children safe online.
Speaker 1:We would love if you would review and subscribe to this podcast and also check out our social media. If you would like to get in touch with Simon and the down Under Investigations team for any reason, please check out our website at www.downunderinvestigations.comorcallonethreehundredeightfournineohohsevenoremailinfodownunderinvestigations.com. Thanks for listening.