Unlawful sacking of Yorkshire police chief cost Â£600,000

David Crompton won his case to overturn his sacking as chief constable at the High Court.

Mr Crompton received Â£146,486 over the last six months of his employment – nearly all of which he was suspended for. South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Alan Billings has declined to detail why the amount was only Â£15,000 less than the former chief’s salary for the entire previous financial year.

The Labour PCC has also confirmed he agreed to pay Â£135,000 to cover Mr Crompton’s legal costs after he successfully overturned Dr Billings’ decision to force him out of office at the High Court.

Another Â£174,000 went to lawyers advising the PCC during the chief constable’s suspension, which began on April 27 last year, and then trying to defend the decision to require Mr Crompton to resign just over five months later on September 29. An extra Â£145,696 was paid to temporary and interim chief constables and an assistant chief constable brought in to cover during Mr Crompton’s suspension.

Sheffield Liberal Democrat councillor Joe Otten, a member of the police and crime panel which holds the PCC to account, said Dr Billings had “clearly bungled the sacking of David Crompton at great public expense” and made a fresh call for him to resign. The PCC hit back and said Coun Otten “seems to forget that he fully supported my actions at the time”.

Mr Crompton had been due to retire last November but Dr Billings brought his 31-year policing career to a premature end following the conclusion of the Hillsborough inquests on April 26.

The PCC claimed a press statement issued by the then-chief constable implied criticism of Liverpool supporters in relation to the disaster at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground which led to 96 deaths in 1989 – something which had been explicitly ruled out by the inquests’ verdicts.

But two High Court judges found no fair-minded person could have reached the same conclusion as the PCC and, in quashing the decision to suspend and to ultimately force Mr Crompton to resign, declared Dr Billings’ actions were “irrational”.

Coun Otten said that by “pursuing a weak case... Dr Billings has wasted over half a million pounds that is coming out of the budget for putting police on the streets in South Yorkshire”, adding: “This is why I have called for him to resign.”

But Dr Billings said all candidates at hustings for the PCC election last year had supported his actions, adding: “They all said they would, including Coun Otten, who was one of the losing candidates. His comments now should be judged in the light of that.”

While the PCC has provided the costs associated with the saga, it remains unclear why Mr Crompton was paid nearly a year’s salary while being employed for six months in 2016/17. A spokeswoman for the former chief constable declined to comment.

The three words that cost South Yorkshire’s police chief his job

South Yorkshire Police chief “must go after catastrophic Hillsborough statement”

Dr Alan Billings: My right to ask chief constable David Crompton to resign over Hillsborough