Independent Forensic Examiner – Yeoman Smith

Spending 41 years with the same employer is a long time – in over four decades, one could become an expert, a world-class leader perhaps, in their chosen field. Yeoman Smith spent 30 years as a serving police officer - a decade with Aberdeen City Police and double that with Grampian Police. He then spent eleven years - until July 2006 - with Grampian Police as a civilian Senior Forensic Document Examiner. Yeoman Smith is very much an expert in his field - and in 2007 used this expertise to launch a business venture, offering independent forensic examination reports to clients in the north east.

During his time with the police Yeoman produced hundreds of Forensic Science Reports – having examined and photographed numerous crime scenes including murders, various serious crimes, major incidents and road accidents. He has been actively involved in the acquisition, development and identification of fingerprints from scenes of crime and over the years has examined thousands of documents for handwriting and for general questioned document evidence.

In 2006 Yeoman was one of only 22 people worldwide to hold the diploma in Questioned Document Examination from the Forensic Science Society. Alongside this qualification, he also holds an Open University Post Graduate Diploma in Document Examination, is recognised as a Registered Forensic Practitioner, and has completed a training course in Major Crime Scene Management.

So, when he chose to start up as an Independent Document Examiner – it’s understandable that Yeoman had every confidence in his abilities to provide an excellent service. The greatest task as far as he was concerned was the challenge posed by finding himself cast adrift from the comforts of the police.

"When I began to get things moving in November last year, I had no fears in terms of my ability to provide an excellent service, and this is still true. What I find truly awe-inspiring though, is finding myself in the position of fending for myself - having spent my entire working life with such a massive organisation. For years I have not had, nor ever required, a working knowledge of the in’s and out’s of business – tax, insurance, marketing and the like.

"I sought help from Business Gateway and the assistance offered by my advisor Karen has been fantastic, I know that I can get in touch with her at any time for advice. To date, I have completed five courses and these have given me a good understanding of what is required in setting up a new business.

"It’s nice to meet others in the same boat at the Business Gateway courses. Although our businesses are different, a lot of the questions that are being asked of us or questions that we ask ourselves are relevant across the whole group. It is also extremely useful that the advisors are people who have set businesses up in the past, and can offer practical knowledge."

Yeoman has three types of potential client in mind when it comes to providing his service. "My primary focus in terms of potential clients is criminal defence lawyers. They receive a report from the police in the form of forensic evidence, which could be handwriting or fingerprint work. If the defendant says that the evidence is wrong, that it wasn’t them, I can then be brought in to examine the evidence and produce a report to be used as independent evidence.

"Business Gateway has proven to be an extremely useful resource when it comes to identifying my target market. One of their services allows new businesses to target a particular section of the community, in this case criminal defence lawyers. They then provide a list of contacts for the north east, or for further afield – making the job of contacting them much easier.

"My second group of clients will be businesses that suspect an employee is embezzling money from them. Understandably, in an effort to keep things private, they may not wish to involve the police. I can provide a low-key document handwriting examination service, which they could then act upon if they wished.

"The final group consists of individuals and this is a group that many of my contemporaries shy away from, which I think is a shame. This is mainly down to problems in obtaining fingerprint or handwriting samples – and in some cases, problems in being paid!"

While Yeoman probably doesn’t envisage spending the same amount of time in this job as he did in the last, the wealth of experience and knowledge that he possesses and the help of Business Gateway, will ensure that it’s quality time.

The Business Gateway service in Grampian is delivered by Enterprise North East Trust. For more information telephone 01224 289725 or visit www.bgateway.com.

ENDS

For further information, contact:

John McIntosh

Tricker PR

Office 01224 646491

Email jmcintosh@trickerpr.com