CPS considers file on alleged £1m fraud at Police Federation

An alleged £1m fraud at the Police Federation has been referred to prosecutors.

Lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service will now consider if criminal charges should be brought against Will Riches, the former vice-chair of the federation and a serving Metropolitan police officer.

The investigation began in March 2016 and it is alleged £1m in Police Federation funds was transferred to an organisation called the Peelers Charitable Foundation.

The Police Federation has been riven by internal divisions and was under government pressure to reform, after a series of controversies about how it spends and manages the money it raises.

It represents 123,000 rank and file police officers in England and Wales, and in 2014 Riches ran to be its chair. He got the same number of votes as his rival, but lost the job on a coin toss to Steven White, the current chair.

In March 2016 the Police Federation leadership called in investigators, claiming the £1m should not have been transferred out of the organisation.

Four people were arrested and placed under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. They were two serving Met officers, one serving South Wales police officer and one retired Greater Manchester police officer.

Today it said that three of them did not have a criminal or disciplinary case to answer. Only Riches has been referred to the CPS, with the investigation concerning the transfer of funds, which happened in August 2015. Riches is listed on documents as trustee of the Peelers charity. He resigned as vice-chair of the federation in March 2016.

An IPCC ddeputy chair, Sarah Green, said: “This has been a complex financial investigation and I have now decided to make a referral to the CPS as our investigation has found that there is an indication that one officer may have committed a criminal offence.

“I am now satisfied we have gathered all the available evidence and it is now for the Crown Prosecution Service to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to commence criminal proceedings.”

The IPCC said it had also considered whether any disciplinary offences had been committed and added: “In the IPCC investigator’s opinion, the MPS officer has a case to answer for gross misconduct, and two officers and a retired officer have no case to answer.”

Riches has been a constable in the Met since 1995, starting in east London. He first won election to the federation’s constables’ central committee in 2009, and in 2014 he became vice-chair of the federation, after losing out on becoming chair so narrowly.

In a statement the IPCC said: “A referral to the CPS is made when the IPCC investigation indicates that a criminal offence may have been committed. It does not mean that criminal charges will necessarily follow. The CPS will decide whether charges should be brought, based on the test set out in the code for crown prosecutors.”