An increasing amount of families are using Private Investigators to carry out background checks on families and the prospective grooms.

One company has seen a marked rise in the number of UK families wanting to find out more about their soon-to-be in-laws. From wanting to know more about their income to information on castes, Asian families are keen to find out exactly who they are marrying into.

Raj Singh is senior partner at Lion Investigation Services. He said: “We deal with all sorts of cases. And what I have discovered is that people will lie about almost anything.

“A father came to us concerned about his prospective son-in-law who claimed to be a judge. In actual fact he was a court usher.

“In another instance, a man had lied about his caste on an online marriage forum.

“The woman who was on brink of agreeing to marry him asked us to check.

“This was a difficult one to prove.

“We ended up following his parents to a temple on a Sunday and discovered that he was of a different caste entirely and that he had lied to her in order to entice her to marry him.”

Raj reveals the time for each case ranges widely, with some being concluded within a day, whilst other could last up to two weeks.

“Each case is different. It all depends on what the client needs and how complex the situation is.

“If we realise a case will last for a longer period of time than anticipated, we will reduce the daily cost for the client.

“Cases where infidelity is the concern are usually resolved quite quickly. We find couples often go to train station car parks for their illicit encounters.

“Very often they use a ‘training course’ as the perfect scapegoat.

“We have had to travel to Paris and Ayia Napa to investigate cases of alleged infidelity.

“At the end of the day, the client has come to us due to their own angst. We want to support them as best we can.”

Raj and his colleagues Amrat Singh and Asif Khan have worked in the police force for over a decade, and set up Lion Investigation Services last year.

Raj said: “Being in the police force opened our eyes to many taboo things within the Asian community.

“Since we launched Lion Investigation Services, we continue to be astounded by what goes on in the community.

“People often associate Private Investigators with infidelity. Whilst that does entail many of our cases, we are also approached by parents who are concerned for their children.

“One parent was worried about where her son would disappear to one night out of every month.

“After our investigation it emerged that he would go to a casino and gamble away sums of up to £4000 in one night.

“It further emerged from his internet history that he was addicted to gambling.

“He subsequently was able to see specialists to help him with his addiction.

“On another occasion a father was worried that his future son-in-law wasn’t who he claimed to be."

The investigation found that he had lied about his name and that he was working illegally as a driver without a license.

“As a result Border Agency got involved and dealt with him accordingly," said Raj.

“We have had to determine hidden financial assets in divorce cases. In one case a man had claimed poverty and not given any maintenance to his ex-wife. We were able to prove that he had been to Pakistan twice in one year and that he owned 3 houses and 2 cars.”

Raj added that sometimes the nature of cases can be unprecedented and can take a grave turn.

“Recently we were contacted by a University Society who had come to know that one of their students had been the victim of grooming.

“The ‘boyfriend’ had taken explicit photos of his Asian girlfriend and had then threatened to show them to her family if she did not have sex with his friends.

“Naturally the girl was petrified that her family would find out and resisted police intervention for that very reason.

“As a result of that case, we have put together a talk that we will deliver to universities explaining to students how they can protect themselves, and how to strategically gather evidence if they think someone is trying to use them.

“We also have after care packages.

“This means that following the conclusion of a case, we have counselors and support organisations in place to help the clients afterwards. This is administered free of charge.

“When clients discover information as a result of the investigation, they can be left distraught.

“We have seen people throwing up from shock, even resorting to self-harm to deal with the pain of what they have discovered.

“The after care package supports the clients through the aftermath of their discovery.”

Raj admitted that many agencies approach each case with an antagonistic attitude. He said their ethos differs in this way.

“We deal with every case with a very open minded attitude. It isn’t always the case that the ‘subject’ is guilty.

“We do a risk assessment with every case. If there is a risk of harm to an individual, we won’t take on the case.

“At the end of the day our aim is to help put people’s minds at ease.”