Exclusive: Probe into ‘golden goodbye’ for police official

The “golden goodbye” paid to Joe McCarthy when he left the position of chief executive at Cleveland Police Authority is one of a number of lines of inquiry being pursued as part of a long-running inquiry into allegations of corruption and other criminality at the police authority and the Cleveland force.

On Saturday, it was revealed Mr McCarthy had been arrested and that payments totalling nearly £80,000 made on his corporate credit card are being investigated as part of the inquiry, called Operation Sacristy.

But the Yorkshire Post has learned that Mr McCarthy’s pay-off and loyalty bonus payments of £25,000 a year are also forming part of the inquiry, which is largely being handled by officers from the neighbouring North Yorkshire force.

The payments all received formal approval from the police authority but it is understood Operation Sacristy is investigating whether there was any impropriety in the process, including the presentation of information, which led to approvals being granted.

Mr McCarthy was arrested over a week ago on suspicion of fraud, corruption, misconduct in a public office and money laundering. After questioning at a North Yorkshire police station he was bailed until April as inquiries continue.

Loyalty payments to Mr Mc-
Carthy for remaining as police authority chief executive began in 2008/09 when he received his first £25,000 bonus. They continued up until he was made redundant in June 2010 and further bonus loyalty payments, which would have been paid had he remained in post were subsequently included as part of the total £362,000 pay-off package.

On leaving Cleveland Police Authority, Mr McCarthy became managing director of Reliance Police Support Services which had agreed a multi-million contract to provide custody services to Cleveland Police which began in 2007.

He is understood to have left Reliance at the end of last year. Capita, which has taken over Reliance, declined to comment on Mr McCarthy’s departure.

When Mr McCarthy became Cleveland chief executive in 2003 his basic salary was £79,275. In his first year of employment, the only extra payments he received were £907 essential car user allowance and £139 in expenses.

By the time he left in 2010, basic pay had increased to £113,000 but in the two years before his departure Mr McCarthy received total payments of just under £190,000 (2008/09) and just over £188,000 (2009/10).

As well as the £25,000 annual loyalty payment, the chief executive had negotiated performance-related pay bonuses and an annual £8,000 car allowance.

In contrast, his replacement and the current chief executive, Stuart Pudney, receives a basic salary of £90,000 and no bonuses.

When the scale of the £362,000 pay-off first became public knowledge last year, Cleveland Police Authority was subjected to criticism with local Redcar MP Ian Swales saying taxpayers would be “horrified” at the amount. At the time, the police authority acknowledged the payment was “huge”.

The police authority now says it cannot comment further on the pay-off and loyalty bonuses – or how they were arrived at and agreed – because of the ongoing police inquiry.

Mr McCarthy has not responded to attempts to contact him for comment. Operation Sacristy, which is being run by Keith Bristow, head of the new National Crime Agency, said it could not comment on specifics relating to any individual under inquiry.

On Saturday, the Yorkshire Post revealed details of spending on Mr McCarthy’s corporate credit card in the four years to his departure, which included more than £8,000 spent in restaurants and pubs, many of them in the old North Ridings towns of Yarm and Guisborough.

Individual restaurant bills in excess of £500 were settled on the card which was also used to pay more than £1,500 to a company specialising in luxury car audio systems.

The publicly-funded card was used at a supermarket in a picturesque fishing port in south west France and more than £16,000 went on hotels, with a highest single payment of more than £750 at a hotel in Leeds. A further £9,000 went on flights. Other expenditure on the card included hundreds of pounds at Tesco supermarkets, spending at a golf club, at a jewellers and at IKEA.