How to Conduct an OSINT Investigation on Private Hire Motor Cars in the UK

An interesting insight into the investigation of a vehicle acting suspiciously and how Osint can be utilised to conduct in-depth enquiries

Around 4:00 am on a murky winter’s night in March 2026, a motor vehicle was observed driving slowly up and down a street in the East Midlands of the UK. Two young males were seen in the car; they appeared to be looking for something or someone, which seemed highly suspicious. The vehicle registration was recorded (no other markings or signs were attached to the vehicle), with the only additional information being that it was a dark Mercedes.

Oskaresearch was directly asked to complete some OSINT enquiries on the vehicle registration to identify the owner(s) and determine whether any malicious or unlawful activities had been, or may have been, undertaken within the community.

To commence an OSINT investigation, the initial step is usually a Google search, so the car registration was typed into the Google search engine online, which produced an unusual response – the registration was shown as being listed on a council database for private hire operators.

Since 1976, local UK councils have been legally required to list all locally licensed private hire and Hackney operators and make them available for public scrutiny, the specific part of the legislation being Section 51(3). Over the years, access for public scrutiny has improved through the introduction of provisions requiring information to be made available online.

(3) It shall be the duty of a council by which licences are granted in pursuance of this section to enter, in a register maintained by the council for the purpose, the following particulars of each such licence, namely—
(a) the name of the person to whom it is granted;
(b) the date on which and the period for which it is granted; and
(c) if the licence has a serial number, that number,
and to keep the register available at its principal offices for inspection by members of the public during office hours free of charge.

Currently, 313,000 private hire and Hackney licensed vehicles are listed in the UK, which should be available for searching online. This is a very useful capability for conducting OSINT investigations.

So, back to our current OSINT investigation into a suspicious Mercedes……………

From our initial Google search, we now had some information relating to the company that had possession of the vehicle being investigated. From the company information, we were able to find a website relating to the business and, most importantly, an email address – gold dust in the OSINT world. The email address was searched through an OSINT platform. This type of platform can conduct instant searches across the internet and produce specific information relating to email addresses, usernames, and telephone numbers, all of which are open source and accessible to the general public.

This process provided us with a person’s name who was believed to have originally created the email address. This person had also previously been prosecuted for operating a public hire business without the correct authorities (identified through a Google search of the named individual). We had now identified an individual connected to the ownership, control, or permitted use of our suspicious vehicle.

In order to corroborate the connection between the individual and the company, we conducted an open-source search of UK Companies House and were able to identify the same person listed as one of the directors of the company that possessed our suspicious Mercedes motor car. Should we wish to make direct contact with the individual in an attempt to ascertain who was driving at the time of the suspicious incident, we could do so.

To complete our investigation, we conducted searches to ascertain whether any criminal activities had been reported in the area where the suspicious vehicle was sighted on or around the time of the observation. This was done by checking the local police website for crimes occurring during March, together with local parish council meeting minutes relating to police-reported crime within the area.

We discovered that a theft from a motor vehicle (number plates) had occurred in March 2026 in the adjoining street. Although the exact date of the offence could not be ascertained, the information we obtained was sufficient for us to submit a report to the police regarding a suspicious vehicle being seen in the location during the month of March.

To conclude, OSINT can be a powerful tool for conducting enquiries into many types of incidents. The combination of publicly available sources of information, specialist search platforms, and trained investigators with the appropriate cognitive skills can provide specific information for the investigation of crimes, vetting individuals, researching businesses, and corroborating events relating to particular incidents.

The information acquired can be contained within an electronic report, such as a Word or PowerPoint document, and then sent via a secure hashing process to ensure the original information has not been tampered with or altered during transmission.

To find out how OSINT can benefit your business, visit oskaresearch.com