Paying the bill

Deputy Chief Constable Briggs is certainly not a criminal, but he clearly made a poor decision when he went on an executive coaching course at a cost of 10,000 to the taxpayer.

This would seem a huge sum of money at the best of times; against the backdrop of deep spending cuts it looks particularly ill-judged.

It was also unwise of him to publicly attack his own police authority over their investigation into the use of the money.

While he feels aggrieved, saying he believed the issue had been dealt with already, the authority could not be seen to look elsewhere after concerns emerged.

This was an impartial probe, which found Mr Briggs had not followed procurement rules. He should accept its findings with good grace. Any criticism of the value for money of the investigation itself is unjustifiable, given his own failure to seek prior approval to sidestep the need for three quotations.

Even though the inquiry found it was appropriate for North Yorkshire Police to pay for Mr Brigg's training, the force and he should now accept that it involved too much money.

If an officer has already risen to the second-highest position in his force, then council taxpayers will have a right to wonder why he is in need of further development at such cost.

Most of the people Mr Briggs serves would never have anywhere near such a sum spent on them at work.

With North Yorkshire Police already facing the loss of a control room in Newby Wiske, as well as wider cuts that will effect all the region's forces, it should spend its money with more care in future.