How spy boss missed £300k Cambridge college ‘theft’
AS ChiEF of Mi6 in the run- up to the 2003 i nvasion of ir a q, Sir Richard Dearlove’s role in claiming that Saddam hussein’s regime was hi di ng weapons of mass destruction remains mired in controversy.
now the former secret service boss has failed to spot the alleged theft of £ 300,000 by a fi nance officer at Cambridge University’s Pembroke College, where he is Master.
hundreds of thousand of pounds are said to have disappeared from college accounts as the female officer became addicted to gambling websites.
‘The college’s history goes back 668 years and, certainly in living memory, we have not had any instances of this type before,’ an insider at Pembroke College tells me. ‘The insurers, who look after all Cambridge colleges, say it’s the first case they’ve seen.’
The officer, who was involved with purchase invoicing, has been arrested by police and is currently on bail, as the investigation has been complex.
She was suspended by the university in January and later dismissed. not a word has been said of the affair in public. The college — its alumni include William Pitt The younger — is understood to be considering legal action against the gambling company to try to recover some of the money.
The college’s Bursar Dr andrew Cates tells me: ‘a member of counting staff at Pembroke College was suspended on January 22, 2014. They were subsequently dismissed. This is a police matter and it would be inappropriate for me to comment further except to say that the college is fully co-operating with the police investigation.’
Dearlove, a close confidant of Tony Blair, has been Master since 2004.
he raised eyebrows in 2008 when he told an audience of students celebrating their graduation: ‘i’m quite lucky to be here as i’m supposed to be organising a few assassinations.’
a Cambridgeshire Police spokesman says: ‘a 41-year-old woman of Fallowfield, Cambridge, has been arrested and charged with theft from employer following a complaint from Pembroke College. She has been released on bail and is due to return to Parkside Police Station on november 17.’