Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Getting Away From Blair

I don't mind admitting that I am rather shocked at the resignation of Asst Commissioner Andy Hayman today. When the Sunday Times printed allegations of false expenses claims it seemed to me like a put up job. It still does to be honest, but I guess we will never know the real truth.

So Mr Hayman leaves with an annual pension of £100,000 a year at the age of 48. And also the prospect of a life away from Sir Ian Blair. I suspect the latter is more important than the former for Andy Hayman.

38 comments:

The Creator said...

The key, surely, is easy money. And very nice, too, if you can get it.

Guarantee almost anyone £100k pa for doing nothing and I suspect you would be flattened by the crowd.

It would be interesting to know if there are restrictions as to whether he can hawk himself around to supplement his £100k pa.

Anonymous said...

c4 news is claiming, that he was in contact with the IPPC, during the Jean Charles de Menezes enquiry, 400 texts and calls...

Is anyone in power in Britain actually doing their job honourably currently?!!

Anonymous said...

Iain, Channel 4 news leading with this - they suggest he made 400 calls to a female member of the Independent Police Complaints Commission - whilst the Menezes investigation was ongoing. Looks bad for the integrity of the IPCC report.

He is slso being linked to the anti-terror police raids in Birmingham, where "the media came too".

So again - what did Blair know and when did he know it? Are we supposed to believe this is another example of Blair not knowing what his underlings were doing?

No-one available to talk to Channel 4 from the Met or the Home Office. Of course.

Anonymous said...

Shocked and outraged,all in one day Iain.But I guess not totally surprised about events that happen these days. I am outraged at the hospital that has instructed nurses to turn the beds of Muslim patients to face Mecca (upto 5 times a day)so they can pray.We are now controlled by complete idiots in this country. God help us!

Anonymous said...

I simply cannot understand your constant defence of Hayman. Blair is obviously a terrible leader for the met. Personally, I would be extremely pleased if this piece of news was followed up by Blair's resignation or sacking. But it doesn't necessarily follow that Hayman can't be held responsible for his mistakes. If this story had been about Blair you wouldn't have paused to consider whether it was a 'put up job'.

Anonymous said...

48 years old, pension of £100,000 per annum ....guess who is paying?
surprise, surprise, it's the tax payer.

strapworld said...

Andy Hayman was a great copper. A copper's copper and anyone in the job knows that to be the best accolade one can get.

He is an honourable man and has shown not only the pygmy commissioner how to conduct himself but also cabinet ministers and others in public life.

I, personally, do not believe the allegations. AND please let us not forget they are only allegations and not convictions. His lost to the police service is a dent in our armoury against terrorism.

Thank you Andy.

Unsworth said...

Isn't this 'retirement' game standard practice for the cops when caught out? I thought it was actually written into their contracts.

I can't forget Hayman's wilder assertions about terrorist activities a few years ago. Practically incoherent and, inevitably, later proved to be wild hype.

But I suppose he was 'only doing his job'. Rather like his interesting relationship which, it appears, was partly funded by the taxpayer.

Despite Hayman's departure, in most people's eyes it's Ian Blair who's at the back of most of these matters. Trouble is that Ian Blair is stupid enough to believe he's smart...

AloneMan said...

Quite frankly, I'd put up with Ian Blair for a pension of £100K a year...

Vienna Woods said...

Sorry to say Iain, but it's m,ey experience that officers above the rank of Inpector are more, or less bullet proof, unless they have really upset the hierarchy of a particular police district. This has nothing to do with honesty and everything to do with the warped sense of justice of a few very high ranking police officers (usually graduate entrants). The talent for catching criminals unfortunately cannot be taught. This is something you have, or don't have, despite what anyone will admit. The best thief takers are those which, sorry to say, can understand the criminal mind and there are not so many about nowadays. We really do need a rather unorthodox type of policeman to catch the criminal, not a Bramshill educated goon whose only interest is to rise through the ranks as fast as possible, but I suppose that is a utopia that we can only dream of!

Anonymous said...

I worked for Andy for a year or so and have to say that the demolition job of smears about expenses/lady friends is appallingly cynical.

Judging by the leaked expenses for a few hundred quid with such exciting company as Norfolk Police Authority, well I'm glad I didn't have to sit through it :O

So what - he likes a few beers, swears like a trooper, admires a pretty face and has a high opinion of himself. Hmm - not exactly a crime scene.

Sure he was too close to a few journos and got caught out talking of school and didn't keep Sir IB in the loop on a seriously bad day at the office.

I've been on the wrong end of his style but can't say it didn't get results - if sometimes a bit brutally.

He is the most hard driving, no-stone-unturned, take no crap bloke I ever worked for. Most people who work for him hate him for it - as he has no time for shirkers or bullshitters. I would say that he takes no prisoners but I think that may be a tad close to the mark for Mr C de M (deceased).

I'm sure these lowlifes are behind the tittle tattle that has brought down the one plodster that I know kept us free from another 7/7.

This is a very crappy little victory for those he found lacking and a dire one for the rest of us.

Shame on them.

Anonymous said...

I,m not privvy to any insider info on this one but defended him in the Mail online. I made the point that compared to MPs expense claims senior coppers haven't even started yet.All,s not right at the Met.

Anonymous said...

err...it's far more explosive than that!

http://www.channel4.com/news/news_category/politics

Channel 4 News were chasing the now-Mr Hayman for details of his phone calls and texts earlier this year. Apparently he was repeatedly calling and texting (hundreds of times) a woman on the IPCC.

Now, he has either been:

1. Leaking to the IPCC from the Met - trying to stitch up Blair.

or

2. Leaking to the Met from the IPCC - trying to keep ahead of the inquiry.

There is, of course, the possibility that he was intimate with the lady for a particularly "intense" period of the Stockwell 2 inquiry.

And this bloke was the head of their professional standards - those who police the police?!?

This could well be explosive. It either spectacularly undermines the chain of command at the Met - with officers briefing against their boss - or it spectacularly undermines the independence of the IPCC and the De Menezes inquiry.

Anonymous said...

Interesting to consider that having joined the force in 1978 he has worked for less than 30 years. He is under 50. this must equate to no pension yet. When in 1978 did he join? If it is later than 4.12.1978 then what is he doing between now and the pension maturity date? Was he a cadet prior to joining? Or is talk of him "retiring" b*llocks to camouflage the fact that he was about to be sacked? He retires with immediate effect I am told.
I think we should be told the truth. It used to be a frequent lament of the radical left that coppers were allowed to retire to escape discipline. How things have changed!

Anonymous said...

all aboard the gravy train?

Anonymous said...

Cameron will be spoilt for choice at tomorrow's PMQs!

Man in a Shed said...

e say hwo much a pension of £100,000 per year would cost to buy someone at 48 ?

Anonymous said...

The police force I work for had a Superintendent from an English force temporarily attached to us. He got caught driving in excess of the drink/ drive limit.

The police force I work for will sack/fire/dismiss anyone caught and convicted of excess alcohol. No questions, no excuses, no nothing.

The Superintendent has been sent back to his/her parent force where the relevent disciplinary regulations do not apply. This person will keep his/her job.

If this person had been anyone below the rank of Inspector the full weight of the regulations would have been imposed.

I know this will be hard to believe but there you go.

Anonymous said...

the creator: 6.35pm

He can hawk himself around as much as he likes; plod who retire tend to end up in cushy security positions or, and remember John Stalker, fronting security companies on television

Anonymous said...

TRUNCHEON SAID:

Yes I agree; You pay peanuts you get monkeys. You have a peeler who knows whats what and he will fall foul of the labour party machine.

My God its hard to be humble.

ps. Build more prisons.

Tapestry said...

Interesting that under Blair - I mean Tony - types like Hayman - the get things done variety - were able to function.

Under the current regime the creepers and leapers like Sir Ian Blair, and Gordon Brown - the egoists who were hiding behind Tony's apron strings - are killing off the last ability to function of the public services.

Tony Blair worked with the good and the bad. Brown only works with the bad. All the good are going. Catastrophy beckons.

Anonymous said...

Every cloud has a silver lining.

His retirement will mean that he has much more time to spend with his wife.

Anonymous said...

Changing the subject (this is the top thread so there's no point putting it anywhere else) did nobody else remark upon the absence of the Peter Hain story's absence from the News at Ten yesterday?

One of the most important politicians in the country "forgets" to declare £70k of donations and the beeb can't even be bothered to broadcast it on the main news program of the day?!

Time to axe this New Labour bad news filter....

Chris Paul said...

That's good meaning bad Tapestry? You've lost me.

It is I think - and I speak from experience here - rather unwise to speak up in outrage on behalf of someone's innocence or quality when we don't know the full case against them.

Even speaking up for due process can be unpopular.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Interesting to consider that having joined the force in 1978 he has worked for less than 30 years. He is under 50. this must equate to no pension yet.


Hear speaks someone who has no idea now police pensions work. Tsk, nothing like an empty vessel remarking on a specialist subject.

Praguetory said...

As the third most senior person in the Met, £15k in expenses over 2 and a half years is f all especially if you're overseeing a department - I'm speaking as someone who has had probably reclaimed £15k on my expenses over the years peronally. That's what the average wedding costs isn't it?

It is as you say a demolition job.

Anonymous said...

Truncheon (11.12) - then perhaps you would be good enough to elucidate for the rest of us ignoramuses. Most of us live under the delusion that pensions are not usually payable before the age of 60. Maybe this does not include lump sum payoffs? How early can coppers retire and sit back in taxpayer provided luxury?

Unsworth said...

"Andy" is another example of a politicised cop on the make. His record is not all that clever, but his publicity machine has, so far, worked reasonably well. Anyone with a memory will recall some of his wilder - and entirely unfounded - prognostications over 'terrorism threats' and will be surprised at the apparent lack of concern over his subsequent activities.

Time for real scrutiny, I think. It's the usual police mantra that they are the most accountable public body. That may be true - but so what? All it indicates is that real public examination is minimal.

Hayman's apologists are nearly always those with similar backgrounds and interests. What he should have understood was that if you use the Press, ultimately it will use you.

He's a very silly boy and has now been slapped.

Anonymous said...

Apparently he is on paid leave until early next year when he will have served 30 years and be entitled to a full pension.

Maybe they should, as in the case of Paul Gray of HMRC, find some useful work for him to do in the meantime.

Anonymous said...

Having been royally fcuked over by the Foreign Office when I took early retirement, having my (much reduced) lump sum taxed at 40% and no pension for 10 years I have to say I am outraged. Don't over do the sympathy now guys!

Anonymous said...

I know nothing about the inside story here. But I have to agree with Praguetory that the expenses 'scandal' is a load of old baloney. An annual expenses claim at the top of the Met of just over 5k per annum is incredibly low - certainly way lower than average expenses of top local authority bods. And his £360 per annum restaurant expenses works out at a thirty quid meal once a month. In other words peanuts. I routinely spent that as a mid ranking public sector officer years ago. Something very fishy going on here.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
"Having been royally fcuked over by the Foreign Office when I took early retirement, having my (much reduced) lump sum taxed at 40% and no pension for 10 years I have to say I am outraged. Don't over do the sympathy now guys!"

Different terms of service for the police (similar to the armed forces). I had a deal similar to yours but I didn't feel enraged (jealous perhaps) because, although I retired early, I always knew that my pension wouldn't be payable until I reached 60.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 11.27 AM said...
"...his £360 per annum restaurant expenses works out at a thirty quid meal once a month. In other words peanuts."

The £360 was for one meal. Whether it was extravagant or not depends on whether it was just for him (which would be extravagant) or whether he was entertaining visitors.

Anonymous said...

Feel obliged to point out that in order for a Police Officer to collect any pension at all they have to:

1. Have served for 30 years, or
2. Reached the age limit for their rank (55 for Constable/Sergeant, 60 for Officers - don't get so tired up there, you see) or
3. Be retired on ill-health grounds.

There is a new Police Pension Scheme which new Officers join which is different, but won't apply to Officers retiring now.

The most important thing in all this is that Police Officers pay ELEVEN PERCENT of their salary into their pension - more than any other worker and much much more than the average civil servant - or MP, come to that.

As to Andy Hayman's phone calls - surely this must be his "private life" - or would be if he was a politician..........

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

"the hospital that has instructed nurses to turn the beds of Muslim patients to face Mecca (upto 5 times a day)so they can pray"

Is that true? No wonder British staff flee overseas!

Anonymous said...

If Andy's only problem was, for personal reasons, to phone/text a bird 400 times at public expense why is he rushing off to retirement?

Anonymous said...

I don't know where all this 'copper's copper' nonsense comes from. Sir John Stevens was also referred to in this way, and he was also bad for the job in his own way. He did nothing, well could do nothing, to change things either. The loonies are in control of ALL the asylums now. thing is, Hayman was no different from any of the other ACPO's or ACPO wannabees, he's stepped over the bodies of colleagues past and present, landed lightly on this leaf and that leaf as he and the rest of them butterfly from one post to another, ramping everything up and lying - yes - lying on their respective CVs to get where he is. They're all at it! Sit in the NSY canteen for an hour or two any day and you'll see and hear them all jockying with each other for pole position, talking about who's gone where, and who's transferred and who's NOT going for the next one this time round. Briefing for and against the various faction within - God knows who is actually solving crime - oh yes, I forget, the boys and girls and the rest on the ground floor, that's who, those normally working earlies, lates and nights or whatever is the equivalent in these family friendly days, as it EVER was. Lions led by donkeys and Hayman was as big a donkey as any of them. There's a couple of million quid gone missing recently, and loads more over the past decade or two and there's some questions that need answering before us council tax payers fork out any more for normal policing let alone the rest of the terrorism nonsense. The police service is full of corruption at high levels and plenty lower down in as the rest of the uniform carrying careerists argue with each other and sue, sue and sue over perceived slights on their religion, race and sexuality. It's not the old Obscene publications squad sort of corruption from the 70's - it is probably worse as it is 'institutional' -
Good riddance Hayman! but don't worry, his pension (which to be fair he did contribute to at 11.5% of salary over the years) combined with the nice well paid consulting job he can walk into will no doubt bring some comfort, that is if Mrs Hayman doesn't divorce him because of PS Tubby and walk off with 50% Still, it isn't the way anyone would want to leave the job is it? When Blair and co. are cleaned out, who are we going to get? people like Ali Dizaei - proven liars, criticised for their poor standards, that's who - God help the police service when the next TOKEN ethnic/woman or homosexual gets all the scrambled egg.

PS: build more prisons too!

Anonymous said...

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