Police chief to put his feet up in retirement – for 34 days

A POLICE chief will retire for 34 days before restarting in the same role because of a pensions quirk that made it “financially untenable” to continue.

Nick Adderley, 57, the chief constable of Northamptonshire Police, will step down at the end of February before rejoining the force in April, with another officer temporarily filling his post.

Chief Constable Adderley, who joined the force in 2018, was set to leave this year but has been offered a new contract by Stephen Mold, the county’s police, fire and crime commissioner.

Mr Adderley’s salary is to increase to £165,000 a year from £159,494 and he will stay in the role for two and half years, with the option to extend.

He was forced to retire owing to a quirk in the police pension scheme, in which officers stop receiving contributions after 30 years.

In 2021, Mr Adderley received £48,800 in pension contributions from the force, but last year his pension eroded after they stopped. He will not be taking a second pension but will benefit from the salary increase.

His new contract was confirmed yesterday and during a meeting last month Mr Mold said that pension rules were making it difficult to find senior officers.

He said Mr Adderley needed to “mitigate future financial losses relating to his pension”, adding: “You will be aware that pension strain for senior officers is increasingly an issue.

Northamptonshire Police said that Mr Adderley’s “situation was becoming financially untenable”, with his pension eroding by a small amount every month but totalling thousands of pounds over a year”.