Ex-police chief accused of shoplifting speaks out: "All I want to do is sort this sorry mess"

John Mauger (Albanpix.com/ Alban Donohoe)

A CONTROVERSIAL senior police officer who is accused of shoplifting and whose five-year battle with the force cost taxpayers £1.5m today breaks his silence in an explosive interview with The Sunday Post.

Ex-assistant chief constable John Mauger, who was arrested with three beef fillets in his pocket, vows to clear his name – and launches a scathing broadside at the running of Police Scotland.

Mr Mauger, who was at the third-highest level in the force hierarchy, condemns the decision to allow the Old Firm game to go ahead on Hogmanay as “absolute madness”.

He says official statistics which show crime at its lowest level in 40 years are “absolute drivel” – and blasts the force’s decision to routinely arm officers as a “debacle”.

And he lays into Sir Stephen House, the first chief constable of Scotland’s unified police force, saying his approach set policing north of the Border “back many, many years”.

Father-of-two Mr Mauger, 54, a frontline veteran of London’s infamous Broadwater Farm riots in 1983, left the force in August.

He says he was forced into retirement from his £115,000-a-year job following a series of run-ins with his bosses dating back to 2010 which left taxpayers with a £1.5m bill in legal costs and wages.

Now he is facing trial on shoplifting charges following his arrest in a branch of Tesco near his Essex home.

John Mauger (right) was Policeman in Scotland and left ignominiously (Albanpix.com/ Alban Donohoe)

But in a three-hour interview, he insisted he would clear his name and claimed he had been victimised after becoming a whistleblower against police corruption.

Mr Mauger, the most senior officer to speak so publicly about the controversies which have dogged the single force since its formation in 2013, said: “It is just impossible to take on Police Scotland.

“Their first thought is always to protect their own – not where have we gone wrong.”

Mr Mauger was assistant chief constable of now-defunct Central Scotland Police when he was placed on gardening leave in June 2010 accused of insubordination and inefficiency.

After three years on full pay, he returned to work in the new single force in July 2013 having been cleared of any wrongdoing.

He was one of six assistant chief constables beneath four deputy chief constables in the chain of command under Sir Stephen’s overall leadership.

His responsibilities included forward planning ahead of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

But Mr Mauger claims he was largely sidelined by Sir Stephen.And, after raising a string of corruption complaints about Police Scotland, he was placed on enforced leave again in September 2014.

It came after he lost his security vetting over his association with a music promoter called Brian Rix, who turned out to have a criminal record.

Mr Mauger said: “Some people will look at the history here and think I have an axe to grind. But everything I have ever done in this sorry mess was not for my benefit.

“It was to try and get senior people to do the job they are paid big money to do and make the force a better service.”

It’s his searing comments about the highly controversial police decision to allow the Rangers-Celtic clash to go ahead at lunchtime on New Year’s Eve which will draw the most attention.

Rank-and-file police are opposed to the move, as are many publicans who fear the prospect of trouble will scare customers away.

Now Mr Mauger has weighed in, saying: “It seems like absolute madness to me.

“When these two play, incidents of crime and disorder go up across the whole country and this is coming on one of your busiest days of the year.

“The crucial question is are they increasing the number of officers they have on that day to take account of the game.”

Recorded crime in Scotland is at its lowest levels since 1974 but Mr Mauger shares the view of many in the police community that these figures may bear little relation to reality.

Significantly, though, he is the first ever to say so publicly.

And he’s also the first to explicitly say that the force under Sir Stephen had a culture of targets for arrests for relatively minor offences such as drivers using a mobile phone while at traffic lights. Mr Mauger said: “There is no doubt there were targets.

“This idea we have the lowest recorded crime is absolute drivel in the real world of policing and what the public see.

“The number of allegations of crimes, the number of calls, have rocketed – so why have crimes plummeted?

“There all sorts of ruses now to try and manage these figures.”

Mr Mauger slammed Sir Stephen, former chief constable of the old Strathclyde force.

He said: “When they appointed House he had a one-model mentality – Strathclydisation – and boy did he wield the power.

“What you saw in the early days of Police Scotland was no grip of the financial management.

“I could see this [financial] black hole was emerging, and what you were seeing throughout was House boxing off so many people who didn’t agree with him, or didn’t do what he wanted, that you could not have a proper discussion about it.”

The force reported an £8.8m overspend last year but Audit Scotland has warned the funding gap could reach almost £85m by 2018/19.

On the highly emotive issue of armed policing, Mr Mauger said Sir Stephen’s approach had caused a loss of public trust which led to “debacle”.

And he claimed that since becoming a whistle-blower, he had “no doubts they intercepted my phone calls – because all the tell-tale signs are there”.

In January, Mr Mauger lost a legal challenge after the vetting clearance which all senior officers need to maintain was removed from him due to his links with businessman Mr Rix.

Judges at the Court of Session ruled he attempted to “minimise his relationship” with Mr Rix, who loaned him £250,000 for a house move in 2013 and had spent convictions for assault, fraud and firearms offences.

However, paperwork seen by The Sunday Post claims the cash came from the account of a company solely owned by Mr Rix’s then-wife Charlotte, a barrister with no criminal convictions.

Further papers show the couple started bitter divorce proceedings shortly after the loan went out and that Mr Mauger was asked by their lawyers to hold on to the money until it was resolved.

The cash was eventually paid back to the same account it came from on order of the courts.

Mr Mauger claims the vetting issue became a “witch-hunt”.

He said: “The whole thing was manufactured so they had something they could use.”

Then, in March this year, Mr Mauger was charged with shoplifting from his local Tesco in Colchester, Essex.

But he says he simply forgot to pay for the items at a time when he was under extreme stress.

And he insists CCTV evidence will show he didn’t leave the shop.

“It is a complete and utter nonsense,” he said. “I was at an all-time low. My mental state was so fragile after six years of handling all this.

“I am going to clear my name.”

Sir Stephen declined to comment on Mr Mauger’s claims. Police Scotland passed our request for comment to the Scottish Police Authority (SPA).

The SPA said: “Mr Mauger retired from the office of assistant chief constable on August 31,
following a lengthy legal case, as he does not fulfil the vetting requirements applicable to all senior officers, and would not be permitted to carry out any of the functions of a chief officer of that rank.

“The SPA does not comment on individual complaint cases. We are content that we have robust complaint procedures. Once cases are concluded, anyone dissatisfied can ask the PIRC (Police Investigations & Review Commisioner) to review how their complaint was handled.”

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