Officers lied to boost detection rates

Two officers from Greater Manchester police have been found guilty by an internal tribunal of lying to boost crime detection rates.

Because of their actions, those responsible for 1,000 crimes in Stockport will never be convicted. The crimes where convictions were falsely secured will not be reinvestigated.

An internal tribunal found one officer guilty of 34 sample offences of dishonesty and the other detective guilty of seven charges.

The officers will spend the rest of their police careers away from frontline duties and will never be allowed to deal with witnesses again, as the witnesses would be regarded as unreliable by the courts.

The falsely detected crimes included robberies and burglaries across the whole of Stockport's J1 division.

The fraud came to light two years ago, when the force's headquarters was so impressed by Stockport's success in fighting crime that it decided to look at the division in detail to see what lessons could be learned.

But anomalies soon came to light. After an investigation, detectives were accused of wooing criminals by taking them out of prison while they were on remand awaiting trial.

On one occasion, a criminal was able to see his new baby for the first time. He is alleged to have unwittingly signed documents in which he admitted to hundreds of offences he had not committed.

Another man on remand was taken out of prison to McDonald's and allowed to see his girlfriend. He allegedly confessed to 200 crimes he did not commit.

Last December, the head of the division's CID, Detective Chief Inspector Kenny Caldwell, was given a written warning for his part in the bogus crime figures. He later retired from the force.

Mr Caldwell had been criticised by a crown court judge last June when the murder trial of a drug dealer collapsed because he had removed documents from a file that suggested another suspect might have carried out the murder.