The Long Arm of the Law: Grabbing What's in the Till

You remember, of course, the still-unfolding U.K. expenses scandal, the orgy of greed and fraud that involves fully half of that country's parliamentarians.

Now auditors have found essentially the same pattern at the storied crimefighters' headquarters of Scotland Yard, where several hundred "elite detectives" are revealed to have grossly abused their government-issued American Express cards.

Sources have told the Observer that some detectives had fallen into the habit of withdrawing hundreds of pounds at a time from cashpoints. Other officers appear to have filled in blank receipts from restaurants to account for cash payments.

One source said: "Some people bought three-piece suits while in the far east and claimed that they needed them for work. But it would not have taken much nous [common sense, RvB] to realise that it was 45˚C in the shade, and not the weather for a waistcoat."

Early reports say that almost one in ten detectives has been found to have engaged in expense fraud.

The news comes just days after it emerged that the families of at least a dozen deceased cops have illegally continued to claim pensions after the officers' respective deaths.

Comments

[Aaron Kinney]

Sherlock Holmes would have been ashamed!