£200,000 cost of probe into suspended police chief

Stuart Hyde, the temporary Chief Constable of Cumbria Police, will be told to retire or resign despite an independent probe concluding that a host of revelations about his activities did not constitute misconduct.

Cumbria’s Crime Commissioner Richard Rhodes said he believed the former West Yorkshire Police detective, who has been suspended since September, was guilty of a “lack of professionalism” and “poor judgment”.

The probe carried out by South Wales Police into Mr Hyde’s conduct found he spent too much time out of the county, including on a number of foreign trips, breached force policy on credit card use and used social media inappropriately.

The office of Mr Rhodes, whose role involves the hiring and firing of chief constables, confirmed that it and its predecessor body the Cumbria Police Authority had spent £158,809 on legal advice relating to the investigation.

The cost of the investigation by South Wales Police was recorded as £11,884.89, although the salaries of the five officers and two support staff who worked on the case, amounting to £134,734.80, have not been charged to Mr Rhodes’s office.

Cumbria Constabulary has also had to pay £189,000 to Merseyside Police for having its Deputy Chief Constable, Bernard Lawson, move to Cumbria to become acting temporary chief constable.

This was offset by the money saved as a result of the force not having an assistant chief constable, meaning the total cost to Cumbria Police and the police and crime commissioner’s office was £47,000.

As a result, the overall cost of the investigation, legal costs and extra staffing is nearly £218,000.

The South Wales Police review found there was no evidence of misconduct relating to any of the five allegations Mr Hyde faced. But Mr Rhodes disagrees with its findings and says Mr Hyde does have a case to answer for misconduct over several aspects of his behaviour.