After 41 months, Operation Sacristy, the corruption investigation into Cleveland Police, has drawn the conclusion that there will be no further criminal charges.

It has cost £5m of public money at a time when police resources were having to be squeezed and the jobs of devoted officers lost.

There may not be sufficient evidence to justify the further cost to taxpayers of court proceedings but the whole shocking affair remains a matter of grave public concern.

It is a disgrace that an organisation so dependent on public trust should have been riddled with a culture of shambolic top-level management, with spending out of control in what appears to have been a credit card free-for-all.

Public outrage is completely justified because the public has been badly let down and there is a real sadness that the reputation of the whole force has been tarnished. The rank and file officers, who do an admirable job on the streets of Cleveland, deserve better from those who occupied positions of power.

It has to be remembered that this was a scandal that developed under a previous management regime. The new Chief Constable, Jacqui Cheer, has what must be one of the hardest rebuilding jobs in the public sector as she tries to repair the damage caused by her predecessors.

She is not to blame for the excesses of the past and she has so far done a good job in incredibly difficult circumstances. She has promised that more stringent checks are now in place to monitor the use of public resources, and that promise must be kept.

There can be no more chances for Cleveland Police.