Chief constable set for High Court hearing in dispute with crime tsar

WEST YORKSHIRE’S former chief constable and the county’s crime commissioner are set to face each other at the High Court in the latest stage of the legal dispute over the senior officer’s departure from the force.

Mark Gilmore, who retired last summer, has applied for a judicial review into what he says is the “continuing failure” of Mark Burns-Williamson to formally decide whether he has a case to answer for misconduct.

Leave to apply has been granted by the Administrative Court, meaning a two-day hearing will take place from November 1.

The Belfast-born officer was suspended on full pay by Mr Burns-Williamson in June 2014 when news emerged of the investigation by Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) into his relationship with a leading local car dealership.

The chief constable, who insists he has done nothing wrong, had his suspension lifted in 2015 when Northern Irish prosecutors said he had no criminal case to answer.

But he did not return to his job as Mr Burns-Williamson commissioned Lancashire Police to determine whether he had a case to answer for misconduct.

After receiving the report on July 26 last year, West Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner then decided there was a case to answer on two allegations. In August Mr Gilmore announced he would retire from policing.

The PCC says he is not obliged to make a ‘case to answer’ decision for someone who is no longer a police officer.