Former Durham policeman who sold firearms secures lump sum pay-off (From The Northern Echo)

Former Durham policeman who sold firearms secures lump sum pay-off

8:50am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Durham By Neil Hunter

A POLICE officer who sold firearms handed in by the public should still get a £40,000 lump sum and an annual pension of more than £15,000, a judge ruled yesterday.

Former PC Maurice Allen challenged a Durham Police Authority decision to strip him of 65 per cent of his entitlement – due to come into force when he turns 50 next month.

If the decision had stood, the former firearms officer, from East Rainton, near Houghton-le-Spring, east Durham, would have seen his £52,440 lump sum cut to £18,536.

His annual pension would also have been cut from £18,536 to £7,327, his barrister, Patrick Darby, told an appeal hearing at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

Allen argued for his full entitlement to be restored, but after legal arguments by Mr Darby and police authority lawyer Nicholas Wilcox, it was agreed to limit the cut to 25 per cent. Allen received a 51-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, after he admitted misconduct in a public office following his arrest in February 2009. He resigned from the force.

Former colleague and firearms officer Damien Cobain, 43, from Sunderland, was given a 40-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, after he admitted the same charge.

About 30 per cent of Cobain’s future pension was ordered to be forfeit by the police authority, but the appeal judge yesterday said it should be ten per cent.

The ruling – made by Judge Peter Fox amid criticism of the police authority – means he should expect to receive a lump sum of £25,650 and an annual payment £4,050.

Married father-of-two Cobain’s barrister, Ian Skelt, argued that “innocents” would be affected by his loss of money.

The barristers said the case was not as serious as some – such as officers guilty of sex offences – and that the weapons had been sold only to people with firearms certificates, not criminals.

Judge Fox said he hoped any damage to the confidence of the force could be repaired “fully and permanently, but said: “The police authority erred in principle in both cases.”