Police pay £45,000 bill on phone they handed to offender

APOLICE force picked up a £44,500 bill run up on a mobile phone they’d given to a burglar.

The mobile had been given to him while he was on bail as part of a scheme in which police could keep tabs on him.

But he was given a contract phone in error, rather than a payas-you-go one.

So when he then went to jail and handed it over to two associates, they ran up a staggering bill over six months, which was equivalent to around £250 a day.

The pair were arrested on suspicion of theft, but because the burglar hadn’t been made to sign a contract on how it should be used, they had to be let go without charge.

The astonishing five-figure tab came to light through a Freedom of Information request put to North Wales Police by the Daily Post .

In its response, the force said it “occasionally uses inexpensive mobiles” to maintain contact with offenders they are working with to help “integrate them back into the community”.

The response added: “This phone was provided under the Integrated Offender Management process in order to allow frequent support/communication of an offender in their rehabilitation into the community.

“It was used for a number of months and the bills were paid monthly as part of the overall force-wide invoice.

“In the case of this particular phone a contract SIM was mistakenly supplied as opposed to a credit limited PAYG (pay as you go) SIM card.

“When the irregularity came to light in early 2014 the Deputy Chief Constable requested an immediate investigation into how this had occurred, and the matter was passed to Crime Services for further investigation.

“A criminal investigation took place which established three individuals to whom the phone could be attributed.

“Two people were arrested and interviewed in relation to the usage and they provided accounts with regards to their use of the mobile telephone, which included how it came into their possession.

“In this case the evidential threshold was not met and nobody could be criminally charged.”

North Wales Police said the then Police and Crime Commissioner Winston Roddick was briefed on the phone blunder, and it was discussed in full by an audit committee.

It was mentioned on page 176 of the 178-page minutes of the meeting, without any reference to the size of the bill.

But it did recognise that “no other force had mobile phones for external use documented within their policies”.

While some policy changes were made, no officer or civilian member of the workforce had any action taken against them.

North Wales Police said: “Offenders are selected based on as much relevant information about the individual as can be gathered including offending, lifestyle and substance misuse.

“The multi-agency team and its partners work together to support the individual’s journey to positively change their life through access to support services in accordance with their individual needs and re-offending risks.

“A phone allows two way communications to provide encouragement and keep the individual on track.

“Not only will the offender themselves benefit from the opportunity of making changes to their lives, the communities in which they live will also benefit.”

In 2015, North Wales Police failed to notice it had been paying around £70,000 a month for a phone service that wasn’t even being used, spending around £500,000 before the over-payments were detected.