Cop watchdog quits
Look out for hot watches Under-fire SPA chief says he’s taking early retirement
WATCHES worth more than £20,000 were nicked from an hotel.
The collection was taken from the Rox Hotel in Aberdeen’s Market Street between 10.30am and 6.45pm last Saturday.
Police asked anyone who is offered a designer watch for sale to contact them. SCOTTISH policing was plunged into a fresh crisis yesterday when the chief executive of the force watchdog announced he will retire early.
John Foley will step down from his £115,000-a-year post with the Scottish Police Authority in October after repeated criticism.
He had faced calls to resign after an inspection found “shortcomings” in his capacity to provide expert advice and support to the SPA board.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland concluded this was a “fundamental weakness” in governance arrangements at the authority.
A second critical HMICS report published in June concluded the SPA and Police Scotland had failed to deliver improvements to forensic services.
Foley said: “The SPA have continued to evolve and improve since the i r inception in 2013. Strengthening the governance of forensic services is the next stage of that journey and one I fully support.
“Clearly, the revised a r rangements hav e significant implications for the CEO role I currently hold and following detailed discussions with the board since the start of the year, I have chosen to seek early retirement.”
Scottish Labour’s Claire Baker said: “John Foley’s position had become increasingly untenable. Change was needed.”
The SPA said they had “agreed a payment in lieu of his contractual notice”.