MPs question cash-for-honours police chief

MPs question cash-for-honours police chief

Tuesday, 23, Oct 2007 12:00

MPs questioning the police chief in charge of the cash for honours inquiry have found the investigation did not receive full cooperation from all those involved in the case.

John Yates, the Metropolitan police assistant commissioner who led the investigation, told the Commons public administration committee there were times in the case where detectives had "less than full cooperation".

The committee then asked him to name who was not cooperating, but the commissioner explained he could not, saying: "that would lead me into the evidential barrier that I said I don't want to cross."

Mr Yates told the committee: "I don't say that now in the sense that it was deliberate but I think there was a sense that they thought we would ask questions, get some answers and simply go away. That is not how a police investigation works.

"We seek views from witnesses, we seek an account. We then go away and we seek to corroborate that account. If that corroboration is not forthcoming then we'll go back again and we'll go back again."

He added: "Many people from all parties cooperated in full and I make absolutely no criticism of them at all."

However, Mr Yates was critical of the approach taken by some of those questioned in the case took toward the investigation.

He told the committee: "I do think we were treated as a political problem rather than a criminal problem."

The investigation took 16-months to complete and resulted in no charges being brought against any individuals.

The total cost of criminal investigation into the cash for honours allegations topped more than £1 million, and involved interviews with more than 100 people.

Mr Yates also denied the charges from MPs that he had been "cavalier" in his approach to the investigation, or that there had been leaks or tip-offs to the media from the police.