NYP: The Missing £2.7 MILLIONS!

NYP Senior Officers’ Expenses: The Missing £2.7 Millions

by TIM HICKS

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Introduction

For many years, various NYE correspondents and journalists from other media outlets have exposed flagrant misuse of public funds by Senior Officers in North Yorkshire Police (NYP).

Last week, I ran an article summarizing most of the issues the NYE has covered over the years and the NYE team was amazed at how popular and widely read it was. It was widely shared and has been one of our most popular articles ever.

This led to discussion in the Newsroom about how much money Senior Police Officers had succeeded in ripping-off the taxpayer off for. I said hundreds of thousands and senior reporter Nigel Ward said millions. This elicited the response “Don’t be daft Nigel, those ******* self-serving ******** could never have run up millions. They aren’t that smart!”, from me.

To which Nigel retorted, “Of course they could! You’re the chartered accountant – DO THE CALCULATION!”

Being somewhat egotistical and confident in my forecasting abilities, and also believing I am infallible, I sat down and consolidated the figures on an EXCEL Spreadsheet. You may well imagine my consternation when I came to the awful realization that I had completely underestimated the ability of variousSenior Police Officers to siphon off funds into their own back pockets. Worse, Nigel was right and I was wrong. Miles wrong. A stunning realization.

The various articles that the NYE has run over the years have identified a series of wangles, schemes, abuses of allowances, jollies and junkets across Europe, the United Staes and Asia which demonstrate just how intelligent and well-organized some North Yorkshire Police Senior Police Officers are when it comes to expenses fiddles. Their ability in this field of human endeavor is impressive and can only be described as approaching the supernatural.

The Missing Millions

It is only when you consolidate all the various scandals we have covered over the years and quantify them, that you get an understanding of the scale of loss the taxpayer has suffered.

The cost of all these (in some cases minor) infringements adds up over time. My best estimate is about £2.7 million pounds. My calculations can be seen in the spreadsheet below:

NYP: The Missing Milllions

For more information on the individual entries on the spreadsheet, see this excellent article by long term NYE correspondent Richard Ineson:

• Has the PCC lost the plot? Is NYP out of control?

and this more recent article by yours truly:

• NYE review of NYP 2024 Chief Officers expenses part 3

It should be emphasised that this is only an estimate to give a rough idea of the cost to the North Yorkshire taxpayer of the repeated failures of financial control in NYP, for illustrative purposes. There could be innocent explanations for some or all of this expenditure. NYP has been given the opportunity of providing an explanation, but has aways steadfastly refused to comment. Should we receive a comment, I will of course publish it, so our readers can judge the police response and I will correct the spreadsheet if that is appropriate.

This analysis does help to some degree explain why the police precept is so high in North Yorkshire.

More Missing Millions

On top of the estimated figure for misused funds, the NYE has two other cause of concern.

1. Only Chief Officers’ Expenses are published openly. In this context (Chief Officer is the Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable, the Assistant Chief Officer and Chief Financial Officer). The expenses of Inspectors, Superintendents and Chief Superintendents are not published and on this basis; therefore, the true cost to the taxpayer of this type of misconduct is probably much higher than the estimated £2.7 million.
2. The North Yorkshire taxpayer pays for an Audit Committee, an Internal Audit Function, a Chief Executive, a Chief Financial Officer and umpteen members of a Finance Department, a Police Authority, then three Police, Fire & Crime Commissioners (Jo Metcalfe – shown above, Philip Allott – shown above and Philip Allott) and now a Deputy Mayor (Jo Coles) and umpteen members of the Office for the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner and then, on top of that lot, the Deputy Mayor. All of these people get salaries and allowances and are paid to prevent these scandals, but have been completely ineffective and a waste of money.

A classic example is Ms Joanna Carter, who was the NYP Chief Financial Officer before promotion to Chief Executive and therefore responsible for value for money and financial control, who paid herself £1,937.38 in expenses payments, without revealing what they were for. So the official responsible for financial control and setting an example of compliance, has undermined it.

No other Police Force in the UK has had the consistent range of financial scandals that have plagued NYP in particular that these people are paid to prevent. The conclusion is inescapable – the taxpayer is paying for a system of financial control and not receiving value for money.

The reality seems to be that in NYP, no member of civilian staff, Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner or now, the Deputy Mayor will confront a Senior Police Officer over Expenses. This situation was perfectly summed up by Chief Constable Maxwell “I am Chief Constable and can do what I like”.

Typically, only the NYE is raising this issue in the public interest.

NYP Responds: Attack the Whistleblower!

You would think that having had these failures exposed in the media, that this would lead to a determination to reform and prevent any further failures. Not so.

The response of every NYP Chief Officer, every Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner and Deputy Mayor Coles has been to attack the journalists that have exposed these abuses. I was threatened with arrest by Chief Constable Madgwick for covering North Yorkshire Police business and interviewed under caution by detectives from CID at Fulford Road Police Station over this article Chief Officer corruption in North Yorkshire Police. Even though it was factually accurate.

The NYE is currently proscribed by both NYP and the Office of the Deputy Mayor, which are refusing to respond to media enquiries.

Despite the intimidation we have faced, the NYE will continue to cover misuse of public funds by Senior Police Officers in North Yorkshire Police.

Right of Reply

If you are mentioned in this article and do not agree with the views expressed in it, or wish to correct any factual inaccuracy, please let me know using the letters@nyenquirer.uk email address and your views and/or a correction will be published if appropriate.