THE disgraced former chairman of Cleveland Police Authority has criticised a report on his spending and has branded the probe into the force’s top brass as a "disastrous waste of time and money".

Dave McLuckie called on Cleveland Police to amend what he describes as a "totally misleading" heading on its website.

He insisted that the majority of the £123,000 he spent over five years which is listed in the Expenses Paid file was allowances to which he was entitled to as a member and chair of the police authority.

The Operation Sacristy website file revealed that he claimed £97,774.36 in allowances, £22,492.65 in mileage, and £2,857.55 in subsistence from 2005 to 2010, totalling £123,124.56.

But McLuckie said he only actually claimed just over £25,000 in expenses during that period. 

“The manner in which information has been presented by the force is totally misleading," he said.

"Information about all others provided under the ‘expenses paid’ heading relates purely to what everyone recognises as normal expenses, in other words payments claimed for travel, mileage and subsistence.”

The 41-month investigation into the spending culture of Cleveland Police was justified with the sacking of Chief Constable Sean Price and his deputy, Derek Bonnard, according to Operation Sacristy chiefs.

McLuckie resigned from his post and was subsequently jailed for perverting the course of justice, after it came to light he persuaded a friend to accept speeding points for him.

The full extent of the revelations from the Operation Sacristy probe, compiled by an investigation team from Warwickshire Police, was released last week and is available to the public on the Cleveland Police website.

“I also want the media and the public to understand that neither I nor others named in the near-400 page so-called ‘managed report’ on the conduct issues relating to Mr Price and Mr Bonnard had any chance to study its contents or respond to its claims, opinions and allegations before it was placed on the force website,” McLuckie added.

“This report was supposed to be about conduct issues relating to Mr Price and Mr Bonnard but a large element of it had nothing to do with that and was in fact a blatant attempt to use smear tactics to deflect from the fact that Operation Sacristy was a disastrous waste of time and money, and to protect those who bear responsibility for its failure.”

No one from the Operation Sacristy team at Warwickshire Police was available for comment on Sunday night.