Peter Heims Life-Time Achievement Award 2025

Eric Shelmerdine

This award is named after the inspirational Peter Heims, a past president of the association, who was noted for his straight talk and dedication to the association for well over half a century. The membership is invited to nominate suitable candidates who have maintained similar high standards within the association and the wider investigation ‘family’ over many years. This is a highly prestigious award, and it isn’t expected to be presented on a yearly basis.

Proposed by the ABI governing council, the recipient of the award is Eric Shelmerdine (Life Member), past president, and past president of the World Association of Detectives.

Eric joined the Association of British Investigators 41 years ago and has served in numerous roles at both regional and national levels. His dedication was recognised in 1994 when he was elected President of the ABI.

Beyond his contributions to the ABI, Eric is also a Past President of the World Association of Detectives and is highly respected across the global investigative community.

For many years, he held the role of General Secretary of the ABI, running the association from Blackpool until his retirement from the position in 2016. Despite stepping back from formal duties, Eric has remained a pillar of support, offering his guidance and expertise to the association. Even this year, he continued his service by acting as Chairman of the judging panel for the Richard Jaques-Turner International Award for Excellence.

As Eric was unable to attend the awards ceremony, Tony Imossi (a previous recipient of the award) read the following message from Eric.

“Firstly, I apologies that it is not possible for me to be present today to accept this prestigious award in person.

I am guessing that there may not be too many here who had the privilege and pleasure to have known Peter Heims.

Peter was ABI President in 1973 and those of you who did know him will tell you that he was a special man. He had an impish sense of humour and for several years acted as Master of Ceremonies at our annual conferences, wearing his traditional red coat to look the part and ensure professional protocols were followed.

After his passing in 2013, it was his widow Iris, who put forward the idea of an award in memory of Peter’s dedication to the ABI he loved, and the GC of the day readily agreed.

The sad fact is that if anyone truly deserved a Lifetime Achievement Award, it was Peter himself.

It is truly a great honour to be considered worthy of this award and to be listed alongside those highly respected previous recipients.”

This award was bequeathed to the Association by Iris Heims in 2013, during the ABI's centenary, in honour of Peter Heims, who passed away the very night before the centenary. This award is highly prestigious and extremely difficult to achieve. 

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