Private investigations deal with the matters that touch a person's life most closely: the partner you are about to marry, an estate being divided among relatives, someone you love who has stopped answering the phone, a debt that the other side simply ignores. In moments like these, rumour and speculation do more harm than the truth. An experienced private investigator in Greece turns uncertainty into documented facts, so you can decide with a clear head.
Petros Drolias has been a licensed private investigator (licence no. 4891/7/1/90-δ’) since the early 1990s. Over more than 30 years the office has handled more than 1,500 cases in 14 countries, a large share of them for individuals and families who needed a calm, experienced professional rather than a dramatic promise. Many are international clients: expats living in Athens, foreign nationals with a Greek spouse, or families abroad dealing with property and relatives in Greece.
What this area covers
This field brings together the investigations where the client is a private person and the question is personal or family-related. What these cases share is a need for facts you can trust: not opinion, but recorded findings with a date, a place and a source. Each of the six services below can stand alone or be combined, and many cases start with one question and lead naturally to another.
Pre-marital checks
Before marriage, cohabitation or a joint investment, it is reasonable to want to know that a partner is who they say they are. A pre-marital check verifies identity, marital status where it can be lawfully established, professional claims and publicly recorded financial or legal matters. It is particularly common in cross-border relationships, where the other person's past is harder to see from where you stand. The work is discreet and respectful, and it often brings reassurance rather than bad news.
Infidelity investigations
Doubts about a partner's faithfulness are painful and rarely go away on their own. We help by observing and documenting movements and meetings in public places, building a clear timeline and, where relevant, providing photographs or video taken lawfully from public spaces. We never intercept phones, read messages or place trackers on another adult's car. The result is a factual report that can support a conversation, a decision or, with your lawyer, family proceedings.
Inheritance matters
Estates in Greece often involve property spread across villages and islands, relatives who emigrated decades ago and records that are incomplete. We trace heirs, locate real estate and other assets through the public registries, and document facts relevant to a dispute, such as how a property has been used or who has occupied it. For heirs living abroad, we act as the investigator on the ground, working with your Greek lawyer.
Missing persons
When an adult relative or friend loses contact, families want to act quickly. If the person is a minor or vulnerable, reporting to the police always comes first, and our work supports theirs rather than replacing it. For adults who may have chosen to cut ties, we use open sources, public records and field enquiries to establish where they are and whether they are safe, respecting their right to decide whether to make contact.
Cash and valuables escort
Moving cash, documents or valuables, for example on completion of a property sale or between a bank and a notary, carries obvious risk. We provide a risk assessment, plan the route and timing, and accompany the transfer discreetly. This is an advisory and protective service designed to reduce exposure; it is not a substitute for licensed cash-in-transit carriers where the law requires them.
Debtor tracing
A court judgment is worth little if you cannot find the debtor. We locate individuals who have changed address or gone silent and identify assets, such as property, vehicles or business interests, that appear in public registries or can be established through lawful field enquiries. We do not access bank, tax or telecom data. Our findings give your lawyer a practical basis for enforcement.
How we approach a personal case
Personal cases carry emotional weight, and that calls for a different manner from a corporate audit. Our first task is to listen carefully and separate what you genuinely need to know from what you fear. Framing the question precisely often halves the time and cost of an investigation.
You then receive a clear plan: which questions will be answered, by what lawful methods, over what period, and what you will receive at the end. A written cost estimate is agreed before any work starts. During the investigation you are updated at agreed intervals, and anything urgent is reported immediately.
The deliverable is usually a written report with a timeline, observations, extracts from public records and, where it helps, photographs or video taken only in public places. It is written so that your lawyer, whether in Greece or abroad, can read it and use it.
The lines we do not cross
Legality is not an obstacle; it is the reason our work holds up. Article 19 of the Greek Constitution protects the privacy of communications, and Article 19(3) makes illegally obtained evidence inadmissible. Article 370A of the Greek Penal Code criminalises illegal interception and recording, while the GDPR and Law 4624/2019 govern how personal data is processed.
In practice, we do not tap phones, break into accounts or devices, put a GPS tracker on another adult's car, or obtain bank, telecom, tax or police data. Everything we hand over has been collected in a way that withstands scrutiny, which is your real advantage if the matter ever reaches court.
How to get started
Every case begins with a free, confidential and no-obligation consultation, in English, by phone, video call or at our office near Omonia in central Athens. Call us 24/7, send a confidential message through our contact page, or book a consultation. If you are a private client living in Greece or abroad, you may also find our page for individuals useful, and lawyers can see how we support their work on our page for law firms.