Officers flouted law to hand out `favours'
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Your support makes all the difference.The two reports detailed some of the cases uncovered by the authors that involved dubious and unlawful practices. They included:
t One officer who recalled how he had recruited a man said: "I got him to write and sign a piece of paper that he was giving me information. I told him that if he didn't come up [with information] the paper would mysteriously end up in The Bell [a pub where the informer was well known]."
t A detective who discovered that a man he was interested in enlisting had 11 endorsement points on his driving licence and was in danger of losing the use of his vehicle which he needed for his job.
The officer arranged for his colleagues to stop the man while out driving and construct some new motoring offences. The detective then went to the man and offered to have the new points removed if he gave him information.
"I got 16 burglaries detected out of that information [and] property back," the detective said.
t An informer who told the police that he had burgled a business with a "friend" and stolen pounds 2,500.
The police arrested his friend and recovered pounds 1,250, but allowed the informer to keep his half of the money and did not prosecute him.
t An officer who disclosed that he had paid an informer a pounds 150 reward for giving details of a robbery he had carried out with two other men that had netted pounds 5,000.
The authors concluded: "In a number of cases informers were receiving `favours' by way of non-prosecution that could be seen to outweigh the value of the information that they provided to their handler."
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