Four London detectives have been implicated in criminal conspiracies by a provincial supergrass. Documents in the possession of the Guardian detail their corrupt dealings over a period of seven years.
The informer has explained how the officers gave his criminal team tips about premises which could be burgled; supplied police uniforms and a warrant card to help them with robberies; and took thousands of pounds in bribes to drop prosecutions.
He has also described the role of two of London’s most active ‘corruption brokers’ known on the criminal grapevine as The Two Bounty Hunters because they specialise in claiming rewards through friendly detectives.
The informer made his statements 18 months ago. Ordinary criminals have been gaoled as a result. None of the officers has been charged. They are a chief superintendent, a superintendent and two sergeants. Two of them are no longer in the force.
In one incident, in 1978, the informer describes how ‘Det Sgt A’ passed on information which he had gleaned from a crime prevention officer about a man who kept 600 gold Krugerrands in a safe in his flat in Elgin Avenue, north London. “Det Sgt A told me that the safe needed two keys to open it. We then drove down to Elgin Avenue in a red CID car. I think it was a Hillman and it definitely had a police radio in it… He pointed out a block of flats on my left.”
The supergrass says he used to meet this officer by the Lido in Victoria Park east London. “On one occasion he asked me if I could do with a couple of police uniforms with hats, and I said they would come in handy some time… As a result of this, we met again at the park and he passed over two uniforms.”
He goes on to describe one robbery in which, with help from two detectives, they tricked an Indian family into giving them £64,000. The idea for the robbery had come again from Det Sgt A who had been told that the Indian family habitually kept large quantities of cash at their home. Det Sgt A’s problem was that he only had their telephone number – not their address. A police superintendent was paid £1,000 for finding the address that fitted the phone number.
The supergrass and two other men then dressed in the police uniforms and, armed with a warrant card supplied by Det Sgt A, visited the Indian family’s home. One of them was carrying a PPK revolver. They told the family that they were investigating counterfeit money and asked if they had any cash in the house. “I remember the elderly gentleman saying to the woman: ‘Open the safe and get out the money’.”
One robber found another safe and asked if the family had any more cash on the premises. They produced a card-board box. “I had felt how heavy it was and at this moment there was a silence. Our original plan had been to take the father to the police station or to tell him that and put him out of the car somewhere in a country lane.
“I went over to one of the others and put my hand in his pocket where I knew he had put the revolver, pulled the gun out and said to the three who were standing round a table ‘On the deck’… We all backed to the front door saying ‘Don’t come to the front door when we’ve gone.'”
They found they had £64,000. They set aside £6,000 as a 10 per cent tip-off fee for Det Sgt A, who at his next meeting by the Lido asked the robbers to hold his money for him for a few weeks until he could contact a straight businessman.
The two ‘bounty hunters’ contacted the gang and said an influential detective chief superintendent had threatened to ‘fit them up’ with the robbery of the Indian family unless they paid him £25,000. The bounty hunters said the detective had been persuaded to settle for only £20.000, and the gang agreed to hand over £6,666 cash.
The allegations made by the supergrass have been partially corroborated by the statements of a second provincial supergrass. The statements of both men were passed to Scotland Yard more than a year ago to be investigated. The Yard has declined to comment on its progress.
* The Select Committee on Home Affairs has been asked to investigate claims that the Operation Countryman inquiry into police corruption in London was obstructed. Members of the committee are considering asking former and present leaders of the inquiry to give evidence on the difficulties which they encountered when they tried to follow up more than 200 complaints against London detectives. In four years, Countryman has yielded charges against only nine officers, seven of whom were acquitted.