Boss who took huge bite out of policing budgets

Dave McLuckie used the card, issued to him by Cleveland Police Authority, to pay for bills which often ran into hundreds of pounds.

More than £4,000 was spent in restaurants between 2006 and 2010 with three venues in particular benefiting from the use of the card provided to the Labour councillor, who was police authority chairman at the time.

Alessi’s in Saltburn, situated close to the Cleveland coast, was visited six times with bills ranging between £40.30 and £240.40.

Payments to the Italian restaurant included one of £202.25 and two others of £156.80 and £119.10.

Another Italian restaurant in Cleveland was patronised on five occasions by Coun McLuckie whose police authority credit card accounted for a series of particularly large bills.

In 2006, there was a bill for £275.80 while in 2007 bills of £767.53 and £347.60 were run-up during two separate visits. There were two further visits in 2008 at a cost of £206.50 and £151.30.

The Big Easy, an American diner in London, was another popular venue with three bills – for £204.07, £186.24 and £138.76 - recorded during the month of December in 2006.

The next month, another bill for £116.60 was run-up at the Big Easy followed by another, for £168.07, three months later.

The Gran Paradiso, an Italian restaurant in London, was paid £366.30 on the police authority card, while Kazan, a Turkish restaurant in the capital received a further £156.

A bill for £153.70 at the China Garden in Brighton was also paid on the card while several other bills for less than £100 were paid for at other eateries.

Substantial payments for stays at hotels were also recorded on the credit card including £438 paid to the Midland Hotel in Manchester in 2010, £392.35 to the Victoria Park Plaza in London in 2008 and £367.05 to the Hilton in Belfast in 2007.

In 2010/11, Coun McLuckie received an allowance of £22,161 from the police authority and £20,270 from Redcar and Cleveland Council, which included a special responsibility allowance for his role as a member of the authority’s cabinet.

Between 2006/7 and 2010/11, Coun McLuckie received in excess of £180,000 in allowances in total from both public bodies. He relinquished his positions on the police authority and on the council cabinet last year in the wake of the police inquiry and his subsequent arrest.

He is also employed as the external affairs officer for Cleveland Potash Ltd and has been paid for consultancy work with other companies.

The Yorkshire Post asked Coun McLuckie to comment on the level of spending on his credit card and asked him whether it had been incurred on police authority business.

He said he had been advised by his solicitor not to comment.

The police authority has also declined to comment on the specifics of the card spending but did provide the regulations attached to card usage.

They state: “There maybe occasions when senior representatives… provide hospitality by way of meals or drinks to representatives of other organisations…

“It is essential that such incidents are genuine and can be supported if challenged.

“An official VAT receipt will be obtained, and the details of the recipients of the hospitality detailed, along with their organisation.”

A spokesman confirmed the police authority had not been able to find any records or official diaries explaining the nature of the spending.