Detective posed as corpse to catch funeral parlour vandals

A private detective hid inside a body bag to catch the man who waged a threeyear campaign of vandalism against a firm of funeral directors.

The bag was put in the back of a hearse, one of a number which had been repeatedly attacked over the years, and for days the detective lay in wait.

His perseverance paid off when he caught Richard Bullen stabbing the wheels of the vehicle.

Surveillance experts launched the £4,000 operation while investigating the hate campaign against the Co-operative Funeral Directors in Portsmouth.

The cost of the vandalism came to more than £100,000 and up to five vehicles a day owned by the firm and its staff were being damaged. However, there were no clues to the identity of the perpetrator.

The funeral directors contacted the Portsmouth Business Crime Reduction Partnership which hired a team of private detectives.

They spent five days posing as members of the public and using cameras to stake out the firm.

But cars continued to be damaged under their noses so security firm Storewatch decided one of their team had to hide inside a body bag.

There the detective could watch a computer displaying live images from cameras inside and outside the vehicle.

Mark Ferns, Storewatch director said: "Our guy would do three or four hours in the bag and then would have to take what the Americans call a comfort break.

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"It was all so covert that we did not even tell the funeral firm what we were doing."

On the fifth day he saw Bullen stab the wheels of the vehicle with a carpentry tool and felt the hearse move. Bullen, 40, was followed and placed under citizens' arrest until police arrived.

His motive is unknown, but police believe he was angered by staff occasionally parking in a public car park near his then home.

Bullen, of Portsmouth, appeared before the town's magistrates and was fined £50 after admitting one charge of criminal damage for the act caught on camera.

At a separate hearing he was handed an anti-social behaviour order after magistrates heard he was believed to be the man behind all the vandalism.

He was banned from going near the funeral directors, from going near the homes of staff and from carrying a bradawl - the tool he used - anywhere in Hampshire.

The burden of proof required to secure an Asbo is less than that needed for a criminal conviction, meaning magistrates had only to believe on the balance of probability that Bullen committed the offences and was likely to cause trouble if the Asbo wasn't in place.