Cops fork out £16k to fix pranged cars

Information obtained by the Tele revealed that £15,962.09 has been spent on fixing police vehicles after they were crashed or otherwise damaged on official police property.

A total of 38 reports of damage to police vehicles were filed between January 2015 and November 2017.

The single most expensive incident saw £2,398.54 of damage caused to a police vehicle within the Baluniefield Police Office garage in January 2015.

Elsewhere, there were several incidents in which police officers crashed cars having just set off, or having arrived at police premises.

Officers racked up a repair bill of £2,153.65 for a total of seven incidents in which cars were “negligently” reversed within police car parks.

There were also four incidents of “misjudged clearance”, one incident of rearending another car and six incidents of colliding with objects within the car park.

In one case, police even had to pay £738.94 to fix a door that had been wrenched open by the wind at Baluniefield Police Office in Douglas in April 2015.

There were also five occasions in which police were not found to be at fault, incurring no costs as a result.

The figures provided to the Tele included four occasions in which police vehicles were maliciously damaged by individuals who were subsequently reported to the police.

In all, those incidents caused £166.80 of damage.

Police Scotland confirmed that no members of the public were involved in any of the accidental collisions reported.

All 38 incidents happened at four police properties in Dundee — 25 incidences of car damage occurred at Tayside’s divisional HQ at Bell Street, with another 11 at Baluniefield, and one each at Lochee and Downfield police stations.

The majority of the incidents reported — 15 — happened in 2015, while 12 occurred in 2016. Eleven cases of damage to police vehicles had been recorded as of November for 2017.

POLICE Scotland has forked out almost £16,000 in the last three years to fix vehicles damaged on the force’s own property in Dundee.

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Bell Street HQ