From rounding up missing army conscripts for national service to doing a personnel audit of a top insurance firm - those are just some of the jobs Julian Simmons does as senior investigator for his business PbCu Research Limited.

Mr. Simmons and his team of two run a professional, personnel and corporate research service as well as carrying out private investigations and product testing, which can include running background checks on individuals to doing private detective work.

And now the 27-year-old Bermudian is looking to get the word out to the Island's companies and individuals in a bid to safeguard themselves against bogus or false information that may damage their operation and reputation.

Mr. Simmons, who hails from Somerset, graduated from Bermuda Institute in 1998 before attaining a BSc in Public Administration, and went on to work as a paralegal for Attride, Stirling & Woloniecki, where he conducted legal and case law research.

But it was not until a chance telephone conversation with an IT expert that he decided to start up his own company, PBCu Research, which was incorporated in June this year.

"One day I was talking on the phone to somebody in IT and I just wondered how did this person get the job and from there I wanted to know about people's backgrounds and professional history and other qualifications," he said.

"Ever since high school I wanted to work for myself and had the entrepreneurial spirit, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do after I left college.

"I needed to focus on what I wanted to do and then decided to set up the company.

"Since June we have had various small time projects - we are mainly a small group of professionals and I run the day-to-day operation as a senior investigator and two other people deal with the other sides of the investigations."

There are three main parts to the business, namely professional, personnel and corporate investigation, covering everything from background and professional accreditation checks to corporate searches and personnel audits, according to Mr. Simmons.

"It could be strictly a check of someone's resume or a complete history on the individual such as their criminal history and everything else," he said.

"We also do corporate searches including directors and officers and shareholders research.

"That is actually what I have found to be the case, as far as Bermuda is concerned, there are a lot of people who are directors of other companies and if the board doesn't do a search they may find that such and such is a director of another company and has other interests outside of their company."

PbCu Research prides itself on professionalism, integrity, reliability and experience, in a bid to reduce risk exposure to personnel fraud for large and small companies alike, said Mr. Simmons.

"I would say having this service is important for an employer because it gives a due diligence process, which minimises the opportunity to be sued as a result of somebody's bogus information that they have given out, so it can reduce their exposure to that risk and it gives people an opportunity to ensure their day-to-day security," he said.

Among some of the tasks Mr. Simmons has been charged with since establishing his company are herding up long term absentees (LTAs) and enlistees who have failed to show up for regimental duty with Bermuda's Army.

"There are a number of different types of project I have been involved in," he said.

"In the work I have been doing for the Bermuda Regiment looking for LTAs and missing enlistees, you have to start with the last current address to try and find them, but many of the addresses are either not correct or they are no longer live there.

"Most of their parents are co-operative if they find that their child has to go and fulfill their national duty.

"Picking up LTAs is tricky because it is done onboard a big military vehicle and you can be easily spotted, so you have to use a bit of cunning when trying to find and pick up people."

On the other extreme, Mr. Simmons has also been tasked with doing a personnel audit at insurance giants AIG.

"AIG employs 1,000s of employees around the world and I had to make sure that what was said on a person's file matched up with the database, so I was constantly checking back and forth between the two," he said.

"A lot of these types of research projects are quite in-depth, especially because you are dealing with a huge history and because it is a very long process and you have to have the knowledge of what you have to look for.

"Companies need to put in a system to stop people making bogus claims and I think that is the point of using our service."

Private investigation, another offshoot of PbCu's main business, may well be a glamourous profession in some people's eyes, but, according to Mr. Simmons, it also involves a lot of hard work.

"The private investigation work we do can involve things such as when someone is going through a divorce and they need to know if there is any infidelity," he said.

"For private and single people, it could be just to find out a person's whereabouts, such as if they are going to work every day, etc.

"But, it is mostly personnel research and background checks that we do and the hope is obviously to attract more big companies to utilise our service.

"Being efficient is one of the key things in this business because it is always moving and changing and people need to know what is happening and people need to have an idea of how long it's is going to take, what is it going to cost and when it is going to be ready."

Looking to the future, Mr. Simmons wants the business to make a name for itself before expanding to meet the demand for the service.

"We are looking at firstly getting a foot-hold in the industry and in Bermuda as a whole," he said.

"We were thinking about getting different office space, to get more employees and once we get there it is going to be one step at a time.

"It is a young Bermudian company and I would say if anybody wants to get into that type of work they have to go in with the mindset that it could be busy at one point and nothing could happen at another point, so they know how to manage their time and to correspond and communicate effectively with their clients."

To find out more about PbCu Research and the services it offers, email info[AT]pbcuresearch.com or visit the website at www.pbcuresearch.com