NEWS UPDATES - NEWS UPDATES - NEWS UPDATES - NEWS UPDATES - NEWS UPDATES
Sydney Pirate Pay TV outfit offering 1000 channels for $50 a month raided by Police:
Great work by Mick Speck in relation to the following arrests.
Police have raided the Sydney arm of an alleged global piracy outfit which they say was selling unlicensed pay TV subscription packages offering over 1000 channels for $50 a month. Police allege an Ashfield shop in Sydney's west, trading as QMC Mart, is part of a global piracy operation which private investigators say is worth $70 million a year with 150,000 customers.
The raid, conducted shortly after midday yesterday, was sparked by TVB Group, a Chinese language content giant that hired a private investigation firm to dig up dirt on the alleged piracy operation.
Detective Inspector Eric Coffen, of Ashfield Police, said a 42-year-old man was charged and granted conditional bail to appear at Burwood Local Court on February 22. He was charged with "possessing a device with the intent to be used to make infringing copy" and "distributing infringing copy of a work with intent to trade/profit".
Police seized computer equipment, nine USB network access keys and records "pertaining to the distribution and sale of those", Inspector Coffen said. The raid follows a similar one conducted on December 14 in Hurstville, Sydney's south, which saw a man arrested for allegedly selling $500 set-top boxes and unlicensed pay TV subscription packages offering 1000 channels for $90 a month.
Michael Speck, former head of Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), was contracted to lead both investigations.
He has so far identified 100 Australian customers from records seized at yesterday's raid who were using the service and said they would be pursued as they were "receivers of stolen property".
MELBOURNE - ADVANCED SURVEILLANCE COURSE
After significant interest we have decided to put out an expression of interest for those persons that would be interested in attending a 4 day Advance Surveillance Course in Melbourne to be held in March 2012. We have never held an Advanced course in Melbourne and I doubt we will again due to the logistics required to deliver this course so if you are interested it will be on a first in basis. There is no requirement for payment as yet, just an expression of interest. The cost will be $1195.00 per person and you will learn current government investigator surveillance methods on a fully practical course. No classroom training whatsoever. We already have 4 positions held and it is limited to 9. One of the most challenging and professional courses you will ever undertake. You will need to have some surveillance experience or have completed the ASSI Basic Course. Contact Gemma on 1300 656 735 or reception@assii.com.au or Sydney (02) 9231 0888
GREAT WORK - FAST TRACK COURSES - SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE
A big thank you to everyone who completed the Phase 1 training for the Sydney and Melbourne Fast Track Courses this week. A challenging week I know but you all breezed through and the commitment to learning was exceptional. We look forward to seeing you soon for the Phase 2 and 3 surveillance and interviewing sessions.
WHAT A WEEK - ADVANCED SURVEILLANCE COURSE
Well what a week its been with the Advanced Surveillance team this week. The final exercise today was simply outstanding and the long hours and hard work that you all put in over the past 4 days resulted in the formation of a close knit professional surveillance team that any company or agency would be proud of. If you think you know how to conduct surveillance then come and join us on one of these courses and you might think twice about what you think you know. We will post some testimonials soon. Well done to everyone and my thanks for your friendship during the week.
Adrian Francis
Director of Training
ADVANCED SURVEILLANCE COURSE - SYDNEY
Congratulations to Tim Green and Matthew Inglis on being accepted into the Surveillance Team Member positions with the NSW Government. As we tell you on the Advanced Surveillance course, this course will give you the skills you require to gain positions with government and also an enviable salary to match. Whilst I know that you cannot speak about specific operations, please let me know if you ever need advice and good luck to you both in your new careers. To those enrolled in one of only two advanced surveillance courses we will be conducting during 2012, I look forward to working with you in the next couple of weeks.
DATING SCAM INVESTIGATION
A big thank you to Eric and his team who were recently involved in the uncovering of a major dating scam which resulted in the recovery of a large sum of money handed over for a fake introduction. The recent headlines in the daily papers are only talking about the tip of the iceberg and ASSI investigators continue to uncover these unscrupulous criminals. We are now also working with ASSI trained Nigerian investigators who are involved in three Nigerian scam investigations. ASSI..........working under the radar and getting results.
NEW LICENSING REQUIREMENTS - 2012
Well it wasn't as if it was a surprise but new licensing regulations coming into play in early to mid 2012 in almost all states will see a dramatic increase in training times and new investigators will have to attend far more training sessions to meet requirements. If you are considering becoming an investigator we would advise that you book in now otherwise you might find it difficult to work in the new training times with your current job as many people simply cannot get the time off work to attend. Our new purpose built investigations/security scenario training centre will be up and running in February and the first two courses are booked out by government agencies. Exiting times ahead
TWITTER
ASSI is now on Twitter and will be posting jobs when they come up where we cannot use our regular investigators. If you have access to Twitter please follow us as we will also be posting important updates to legislation and investigation related information. Please click on the Twitter link on the left of this page for more information.
TESTIMONIALS
It is always great to get good feedback and I thought we would add these recent testimonials to show that the future is always good for new investigators if they put in the hard yards after the course.
Hi Adrian,
I wanted to email you and let you know how things are progressing for me since completing your Cert 3 course in Oct 2008.
I have setup two websites which have a good presence online and I regularly win new jobs and I now hold a QLD Security Firms License allowing my business to sub-contract jobs to other operatives, which I do from time to time. I'm personally accredited with 10 major Insurers and sub-contract to 8 large national investigation firms and regularly conducted surveillance investigations in NSW and for WorkCover QLD.
I enjoyed the course very much and thought Jonathan did a fantastic job of the practical days. Have a great afternoon.
Michael P .....
Hey Adrian
Just a quick hello to say thank you for the excellent course and to say that your advice during the training I did earlier this year was invaluable. After completing the course I did what you said and setup a website and did a great deal of networking and now have a thriving business conducting factual investigations around country Victoria. At the moment I am knocking back work which is something I hate doing but one can only do so much. I love this job more than anything I have ever done and every day is different. As I explained to you, I needed to get out of government as it was sending me into depression and now I feel like I have been reborn. Look forward to catching up next time you are out my way.
David T......
CONGRATULATIONS - CAR REBIRTHING RACKET UNCOVERED by ASSI INVESTIGATORS
This job never ceases to amaze me. Two former ASSI students conducting surveillance last week on behalf of one of the major banks found themselves sitting off a property in Seven Hills Sydney in an attempt to located a person who had committed fraud on the bank. During the evening, James noticed a couple of shady characters take a late model SS commodore into the rear of a premises and noted the registration down. About two hours later a second vehicle, another HSV Commodore into the same premises. These premises had no link to the inquiry they were actually doing. James decided to call the local Police based on what he had seen and that "it just didn't seem right". The following day James received a call to say that the premises were being used as a re birthing factory and three stolen vehicles were seized. Magnificent job guys and a credit to you. I am certain your efforts will be rewarded even if it is a Certificate of Appreciation. Why would you want to do any other job !!!