Police undercover unit ‘reviewed’

Scotland’s police chief has criticised “wholly unsatisfactory and unprofessional” conduct in the country’s former Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) and asked an outside force to carry out a review.

Police Scotland held a review of the undercover unit after a former officer won a civil court case in January.

She had alleged she was not treated fairly after whistleblowing over the discovery of mismanagement at the unit in 2011.

Chief Constable Iain Livingstone has told oversight body the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) he has asked another police force to carry out a further review.

He said this would as certain if there should be further investigations and was being carried out to help restore public confidence in cover t police operations.

Mr Livingstone highlighted the evidence from the former officer, known as Mrs K, included assertions “regarding unprofessional practice, including that documents were destroyed by burning following the April 2011 discovery”.

In the court judgment, Mrs K is recorded as telling the court she discovered boxes and bags of unopened documents and mail in an office she used with another undercover officer.

There were bank cards, mobile phone bills, letters from debt collectors and passports in pseudonyms she did not recognise, along with cash.