Met investigate Met officers stealing money by dishonest use of Amex Credit cards - set a thief ....??? Millions unexplained

Channel 4 News made a Freedom of Information (Ho Ho Ho) request of Sciotland yard on the use of Amex (American Express Credit Cards ..."That'll do very, very nicely thank you" )

2003/4 336 staff spent £811,056
2004/5 921 staff spent £2.44 Mn.
2005/6 2,607 staff spent £4.95 Mn.
2006/7 3,004 staff spent £6.91 Mn.

Channel 4 quote a spokesperson for the Met saying: "The numbers of cards increased significantly between 2003/04 and 2006/07 as the pilot, which originally only involved officers from special branch, diplomatic and royalty protection, was extended firstly to other officers within SO, then to SCD and finally across the MPS as a whole.

They also report that 2 counter-terrorist officers (a detective constable and detective sergeant ) - and one former officer ("Randy" Andy Hayman ?) - have already been arrested by Scotland Yard in relation to irregular Amex payments, while 800 cards were recently cancelled as part of an ... er ... "internal probe" . Ugh!!

As well as the Mets (no doubt faultles) criminal investigation into the Met into credit card misuse (following one in 2004/5, into what the MPA described as "a number of questionable returns." ) , the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) is also carrying out an audit (with the Audit Commission looking over their shoulder) - it is reported they have documents that disclose some £4.7m in "unreconciled" spending on the Amex cards still requiring explanation.

Len Duvall (pic) GLA constituency member for Greenwich and Lewisham, (former vice chair of the London Development Agency....) is the Chairman of the MPS, a highly respected man of integrity and probity with wide (and various - Non-executive Director of Tilfen Land, *** a property development company and work on behalf of the Improvement & Development Agency , plus Consultancy on behalf of Navigant Consulting - he was also a Director of the New Millennium Experience Co.) interests in property development is of course anxious that any misuse of public funds is uncovered and exposed and any thieves punished.

Honest Len told the Assembly's budget committee the episode had been "a disgrace" and that "senior detectives need to be aware of their responsibility about the use of public money". Hear. Hear.

The Daily Telegraph reported that "Sir Ian Blair, the embattled Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was under renewed pressure after it emerged that anti-corruption officers are investigating millions of pounds of expenses claims within his force."

They also reported him last week saying about the dishonest use of the cards ...""The level of criminality is very small."

So that's alright then.

*** "Tilfen Land’s flagship commercial development, the £80 million White Hart Triangle project is the company’s first joint venture with the London Development Agency (LDA) and Greenwich Council and is a prime example of the power of public/private partnerships. ... Using public sector funds secured by the LDA and Greenwich Council totalling £17million, the LDA managed a programme of infrastructure and remediation works including the construction of a new access road and bridge to combine two sites separately owned by Tilfen Land and Greenwich Council. "Quote from Tilfen Land Document. see also here about this exciting development in the Thames Gateway which will benefit from Olympic funding. Tamesis Point is anoter very interesting development.

Tilfen have this fascinating picture of the Directors that heads the part of the site describing their resources ..