Custody and Maintenance Disputes

The clarification of maintenance and custody issues seldom proceeds smoothly; however, the chances of reaching a clean out-of-court agreement or achieving a fair court ruling increase dramatically when admissible evidence is available. The specialist team of Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt is happy to support you in such situations as an affected parent: +49 69 1201 8431.

Case Study: Refusal to Hand Over a Child | Breach of a Court-Ordered Custody Arrangement

Ralf Messel and Silke Eppstein had separated only a few months after the birth of their daughter, Jana, and had been granted joint custody by the court, although the daughter was to live with her mother Silke during the week. Ralf and Silke had only been 18 years old when their daughter was born, which led Silke to drop out of school while Ralf began an apprenticeship as a roofer in order to provide financially for their child. Although arguments between the parents arose from time to time, the shared custody arrangement worked relatively well until Jana started school: Ralf paid his maintenance to Silke, who was unemployed and cared for their daughter and a baby she later had with another man. Meanwhile, he was able to visit his daughter regularly and take her home with him twice a month for weekends to spend time with her and contribute to her upbringing. A seemingly harmonious situation – one that can, however, deteriorate quickly, as the investigators of the Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt regularly witness.

Everything changed abruptly when Ralf found a new girlfriend who accompanied him and Jana on their weekend walks and zoo visits. Jana increasingly told her mother enthusiastically about Ralf, his new partner Marie Neuberg, and the outings they enjoyed together – until Silke eventually refused to hand over the child on the agreed weekends. Ralf insisted on his right to see Jana, but Silke remained unmoved, even under the threat of involving the police, repeatedly claiming that Jana was ill, felt unwell, or was already visiting a friend, and similar excuses. As Silke also had a new partner – later her husband – with whom she supposedly wished to present a picture-perfect family, Ralf later told our investigators that she seemingly could not bear the thought of her daughter having better days with her father and his girlfriend than with her own small family.

Separated from Your Child? Last Hope: Private Investigators

Aside from his despair over his ex-partner’s refusal to hand over his daughter, Ralf soon suspected that he was being exploited by Silke. His parents and friends told him that “little Eppstein” was reportedly earning a tidy supplement to child maintenance and her Hartz IV benefits by cutting and colouring hair in the immediate neighbourhood. As mentioned, mother Silke had by then married her new boyfriend; he was a trained car mechanic and was also somewhat notorious for “tuning” cars of young ruffians by less-than-conventional means and thus putting money aside.

When the little family was even able to afford an all-inclusive holiday in Italy the following summer, after Silke had let months of court dates and hearings pass due to alleged illness of herself or the children, Ralf turned in desperation to the private detectives of Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt. The investigators were to research whether Silke and her new husband were earning enough additional income to support themselves independently. Of course he still wanted to care for Jana and even sought sole custody in view of the suspected criminal conduct by Silke and her husband.

Observations due to Suspected Undeclared Work (Illegal Employment)

After our Frankfurt private detectives had observed the suspicious family for several days, they returned to Ralf Messel with astonishing news: Not only did Silke, according to a close friend, allegedly earn an estimated “more than €600” a month in undeclared cash from her hairdressing activities, thereby unlawfully pocketing a large part of her Hartz IV benefits, but her husband had also, in order to continue receiving unemployment benefit, secretly taken a mechanic job at a nearby garage. The detectives were able to observe both fraudsters both on their journeys to the workplaces and on site, and to photographically document the activities, whereby Ralf Messel could have reported his ex-partner for multiple counts of fraud.

Father Ralf acted deliberately and did not press criminal charges against the mother of his child; instead he struck a deal with her: the existing custody arrangement was reversed on the premise that Ralf would not use our detectives’ evidence against Silke. Consequently, little Jana thereafter lived with her father and saw her mother every other weekend – a circumstance that also benefited her somewhat stalled development, as it later emerged that mother Silke had spent little time with the child, frequently sat her in front of the television and often failed to take her to kindergarten and later even to school.

Note

To preserve the discretion and the personality rights of clients and subjects, all names and places in this case report have been changed beyond recognition.