Criminals allege they paid police to stay free
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Your support makes all the difference.HUNDREDS OF thousands of pounds in bribes have been paid to detectives in the West Midlands Police to help known criminals escape justice, a television documentary will claim tonight.
The allegations, which amount to one of the biggest recent corruption scandals concerning the British police, will be made in tonight's World in Action programme on ITV. They will come as a further blow to a force whose credibility has already been damaged by the Birmingham Six affair and the disbanding of the Serious Crime Squad.
While the two earlier controversies involved allegations of doctoring evidence to 'fit up' the innocent, the latest - against officers within West Midlands Police's D division - centre on allegations that money was received to let the guilty go free.
In tonight's programme, a Birmingham underworld figure, David Harris, claims that in four years he was involved in payments to officers totalling more than pounds 200,000 to keep guilty men, including himself, out of jail or from investigation. The crimes are described as ranging from deception and fraud to conspiracy to murder; the sums from pounds 100 to pounds 45,000. Harris is now serving a six-year sentence for unconnected offences.
After a year-long investigation, the World in Action team identified a Birmingham detective, who it is claimed, acted as the middleman between the underworld and other corrupt officers. The man was secretly recorded discussing his 'deals'.
For the past two years, the Police Complaints Authority has been supervising a major investigation by Leicestershire Police into activities at D division. It is understood to centre on eight officers up to the rank of superintendent. Three files have already been sent to Barbara Mills, Director of Public Prosecutions, but she has ruled out any criminal charges so far.
One of the files is known to have concerned police payments to informants and, while officers will not face criminal charges, the Police Complaints Authority is likely to recommend disciplinary action.
In tonight's programme, David Wilkinson, a former policeman, claims that fellow officers were offered pounds 30,000 to abandon a major benefit fraud inquiry. He claims that his team was outraged by the offer and dismayed when no action was taken against one officer who, he says, tried to persuade others to take it.
Harris says he first bought himself out of jail for pounds 6,000 in 1987. He pleaded guilty to deception when he could have faced more serious charges, and claims that police then falsely told the trial judge he was an informer to secure a non-custodial sentence.
Harris claims that he stopped paying officers in 1990 and is now helping Leicestershire Police with their investigation. The programme says the Crown Prosecution Service has given him immunity from prosecution on bribery charges in return for his full co-operation.
(Photograph omitted)
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