I’ve caught thousands of love rats as a private investigator – 5 ways men avoid detection… including plastic bag trick

LEON Hart sits hunched over his laptop, surrounded by empty coffee cups and stacks of case files. 

The glow from the screen flickers across his tired face as he works into the night – trying to catch some of the UK’s biggest loverats.  

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Over the space of 15 years, the private investigator has caught over 5,000 cheats.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun from his office in London, he says: “Nothing surprises me anymore. Some people can juggle up to three affairs at once. 

“Around 25-30 clients a month contact us with concerns about their partners’ suspicious activities.”

Shockingly, a reported 60 per cent of men and 45 per cent of women will cheat on their lover at some point in their marriage.

And the ways loverats keep their escapades under wraps are staggering – with 38 per cent even admitting to lying about a family death to hide their infidelity, according to research from married dating website Illicitencounters.com.

Leon – who is MD of Intime Investigations Ltd and has over 30 years’ experience working in close protection and surveillance – tells how Brits will go to “extreme lengths” to avoid detection. 

“We once had a target that would park at his local golf course, put his phone in a plastic bag and place it discreetly in a nearby bush,” he recalls.

“This allowed him to meet the other person at a nearby hotel without his wife suspecting a thing as he still kept his mobile location services on, which showed him at the golf course all day.”

He adds: “A few years ago, a wife contacted me who suspected her wealthy husband of infidelity as he would disappear on ‘business’ for a few days every week.

“The husband owned a small aircraft and also had a pilot’s licence. He was found to be having an affair with three different women at once, all scattered around the nearby islands, alternating between the women equally for many years.” 

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Cost of heartbreak

Surveillance is the most effective and compliant method of obtaining indisputable evidence of any wrongdoing.

Leon’s firm charges upwards of £500 for one ‘operative’ – usually a half-a-day session – but it can take several to nail down proof of wrongdoing.

“It normally takes two to three days to catch a loverat so it can get quite costly,” he says.

“Some people have been caught within the first few hours of observation, it all depends on whether we have been instructed on the day they’re going to meet their lover and how often they meet this person.

“Surveillance is always client-led so if the subject is acting suspicious, and their partner picks up on it, we would then suggest surveillance when the subject later mentions working late, work functions, staying away from home etc.”

He adds: “We would utilise the same when conducting personal injury claims or corporate fraud investigations.

“We would need a photo and description of the subject, a starting point, which is normally a work address or home address and a recommended starting day/time.”

Follow your intuition

From Leon’s experience, “women’s intuition” is nearly always right.

He has found around 85 per cent of clients who feel their husband or spouse are cheating are in fact correct. 

He says: “A man was suspected of cheating on his wife of 50 years, they had three children and seven grandchildren.

“After utilising surveillance we identified that he was living at another address with a female in the exact same village as his wife.

Men would generally act on impulse whereby women will seek to become more emotionally attached and there is more effort put into planning the infidelity and covering their tracks

Leon Hart

“After she confronted him with our evidence, he confessed to having this affair for more or less the same number of years they had been married. He had two children and three grandchildren with this person.”

He adds: “I have found that a woman’s intuition, or sixth sense, is sharper than a man’s and they will generally pick up on something that isn’t quite right many months before he does.”

Contrary to common belief, Leon tells how men are just as likely to contact them as women, suspecting their partners of infidelity. 

“Ten to 15 years ago we were predominantly contacted by women who suspected their partners of cheating, but there has been an increase and we are now seeing a fairly equal balance across the board,” he explains. 

“But men are slightly more reluctant to contact us and would prefer to try a DIY job which normally doesn’t go as planned and consequently the subject will be more surveillance aware in the future, which inevitably makes it harder for the professionals.”

When it comes to cheating, he says, men tend to cheat if they think they can get away with it, whereas women tend to cheat for emotional reasons.

“Men are more opportunist than women,” continues Leon. “Men would generally act on impulse whereby women will seek to become more emotionally attached and there is more effort put into planning the infidelity and covering their tracks.

“Social media has provided us with a tool that enables us to contact people who we trust and vice versa from the past, we already have common ground and this can sometimes lead to infidelity.

Common covers

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Data from Illicitencounters reveals business trips (87 per cent) and golf trips (74 per cent) are the most popular excuses to avoid detection. This is followed by working over time (70 per cent) and family commitments (68 per cent).

A shocking 38 per cent of those polled have even gone as far as faking a family death to hide their infidelity.

And 42 per cent have even experimented with disguises, with a shocking 8 per cent even claiming to have dressed up as the opposite sex to hide. 

But Leon says excuses and disguises can only get you so far and there is a limit to the number of affairs anyone can successfully have at once without getting caught.

“Most experienced cheats can manage three affairs at once,” he continues.

“Anything beyond this number is impossible to manage without it getting too complicated.”

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