CLEVELAND Police has been accused of "scraping the barrel" to find 14 disciplinary charges to levy against Robocop Ray Mallon.

The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) last night revealed it will charge Detective Superintendent Mallon with 14 unspecified offences later in the week.

The charges are the result of the three-year-long Operation Lancet which earlier in the year cleared him of any criminal offences.

Det Supt Mallon said: "The charges are not serious but have been magnified by my accusers to suit their own ends in an attempt to justify to the public this lengthy and costly investigation.

"The public understanding of this fiasco convinces me that they will not be fooled by the action being taken against me and they will see the charges for that they are - an attempt by my accusers to justify their own decisions and the spending of £5m of public money on an inquiry lasting three years."

He also called for the disciplinary hearing to be open to the press, an opinion echoed by MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Ashok Kumar, who said: "It has taken the PCA nearly three months to make these charges. Obviously they have been scraping the barrel."

A spokeswoman for Cleveland police confirmed arrangements had been made for Det Supt Mallon to be seen and charges were expected to be put to him in the next few days.

Stockton MP Frank Cook said the impending charges justified the long-running controversial Operation Lancet.

He said: "If there's justification for starting an investigation it is important to go through all the procedures."