May the force be with you – in your cell.
The tentacles of the troughing pandemic are spreading into every corner of public life.
Little wonder that that the Metropolitan Police were so unwilling to press charges against MPs in respect of alleged fraudulent expenses claims.
Peter Tickner, head of internal audit at the Metropolitan Police Authority, has referred ‘in excess of 300 senior officers’, more than 10% of the workforce, to the Directorate of Professional Standards [DPS] for alleged expenses fraud, and 46 of those have become formal investigations.
We now have the farcical situation whereby the very senior officers who should have been investigating the MPs are themselves accused of the same offences, thereby losing any moral authority to carry out an investigation
One senior officer alone is accused of spending £40,000 on his Metropolitan Police issued Amex credit card in just a single year.
Fishing rods (always handy for those evidence fishing expeditions), women’s clothing (undercover work hopefully) appear in the audit, and a three piece suit, complete with warming waistcoat, was bought ‘in the line of duty’ by one officer whilst stationed in the stifling 45c heat in the far east.
We were shocked when six officers were arrested last month for allegedly making ‘inflated’ claims whilst investigating the July 7th bombings, but this is on a much larger scale, so much so that only those suspected of defrauding the tax payer of ‘more than £1,000′ are being investigated – the minnows are being allowed to scurry back under the skirting boards in the name of expediency.
Among the officers involved are some from the specialist crime directorate – who conducted the cash-for-honours inquiry.
All we need now is a handful of judges accused of fraud, and the collapse of our public life will be complete.
H/T Police Oracle
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1
June 14, 2009 at 1:16 pm -
Bloody hell Anna, is there no end! I fear I, and the rest of Joe Public, have been sleepwalking through the last decade or two.
Liked the quip about expenditure on women’s clothing, (undercover work hopefully.) A gem.
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2
June 14, 2009 at 2:11 pm -
This suit, did it have a felt collar?
No to prosecuting MP’s …..”It’s a Fair Gov, Cop”
Undercover work? Corset was.
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3
June 14, 2009 at 3:59 pm -
What are the chances of a suspenders sentence?
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4
June 14, 2009 at 6:02 pm -
5
June 14, 2009 at 6:55 pm -
Bra-vissimo, Zak. You’ve got to the bottom of the elastic question of knickers knicking themselves and maybe a misundercarriage of justice can be avoided if we all just bare what you say in mind. Shame there wasn’t any porridge on this senior officer’s shopping list, otherwise there might have been a possibility of a cell-by date. Many thongks for your input, but don’t work too hard and make sure you have arrest this evening.
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6
June 14, 2009 at 7:00 pm -
Let us hope that they are sacked without pensions at the end of all this.
Or will we have the same situation that we had with the MPs …………. where they all say that this has gone on for many years and everybody was doing it and it was within the rules?
Coppers on the make and take will always be around …………… but one would think that as their over-inflated pay improves with their higher rank – that the least they can do is stop charging their private and personal items to the tax-payer.
Get rid of the police! Bring in the Army! Different kettle of fish altogether.
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7
June 14, 2009 at 7:07 pm -
Coco, Pet! -
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June 14, 2009 at 8:00 pm -
9
June 14, 2009 at 8:38 pm -
I’m feeling a little guilty now – no offence meant, honest.
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June 14, 2009 at 8:49 pm -
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June 14, 2009 at 8:59 pm -
12
June 14, 2009 at 9:39 pm -
Oops – I seem to have missed you while I was unavoidably detained and giving solitary reflection on what could be my next sentence. I have to confess, having had learned-counselling, that you’re the Daddy and a jury good fellow on this one. I could only lag behind you were we to continue, so I bid you a fond farewell.
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13
June 14, 2009 at 11:30 pm -
Ow, all this punishment and no pleas of mitigation and please no leniency.
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14
June 15, 2009 at 1:02 am -
I don’t understand. Credit cards have been a convenient means to manage expenses for decades but the purchases must be monitored or you’re asking for trouble. Whatever audit procedures are in place in these formerly venerable institutions they are very lax.
It isn’t the fleecing of the public purse that bothers me the most, though it does bother me a lot. It is that this is able to happen to such a gross degree.
In Local, National, quango and public sector departments across the land, jobs simply aren’t being done. Highways, health, policing, councils, education and on and on. They aren’t doing their jobs and a blind eye is turned to theft. What have we become? Italy but without the weather, sports cars and mafia to get things done. It’s not like there are crime bosses doing the bribing to gain advantages either – the public sector is being bought off with our own money!
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15
June 15, 2009 at 11:18 am -
You’re having a giraffe.
Plod are currently persecuting someone who’s been caused injury by their actions and yet they continue to do so.
Coco, Pet!
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