City firms double spending to expose office espionage

TRADE SECRETS: Spy company increases law firm sweeps

City law firms doubled their anti-surveillance precautions in the last year, according to Spymaster, a leading supplier of espionage and counter-espionage equipment.Spymaster confirmed that its sales of surveillance sweeps and equipment had doubled as firms become increasingly concerned that competitors are listening in or trying to sabotage deals.Lee Marks, director of Spymaster - which supplies equipment to the government - said 'many firms involved in sensitive takeovers have to take adequate steps'.

He explained that anti-surveillance sweeps - when a Spymaster team go through the firm from top to bottom - were commoner at larger firms.

Smaller firms often buy their own, simpler, anti-bugging detectors, he said.

A sweep costs around 2,000 to 5,000 plus VAT.'We do find bugs in the minority of cases', said Mr Marks, 'but it tends to be an exercise in faith.'He added: 'Sometimes we find evidence that a device has been in place - a couple of wires rejoined, or a piece of insulating tape that would hold a transmitter in place - but has subsequently been removed.'Mr Marks said the company sometimes X-rays law firms' walls as part of its anti-surveillance sweeps.

Spymaster also offers polygraph testing services to vet employees, or to establish whether they are being honest.The level of recorded cases of corporate fraud and forgery in England and Wales rose from 173,728 in 1998 to 279,503 in 1999, recent figures show.

Jeremy Fleming