THE wheels of the criminal justice system in this country turn agonisingly slowly. It is, therefore, telling that the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute Durham's Police and Crime Commissioner Ron Hogg has been made so swiftly.

It is less than a fortnight since the CPS was asked by the Independent Police Complaints Commission to consider whether Mr Hogg should be charged with misconduct in a public office.

The IPCC had been investigating allegations that Mr Hogg wrongly accepted two bonus payments while he was Deputy Chief Constable of Cleveland Police, as well as a car when he retired.

But it hasn't taken long for the CPS to discover that Mr Hogg's contract as Deputy Chief Constable entitled him to bonuses based on how his performance was judged by the Chief Constable, and that formal approval was given by Cleveland Police Authority for the car to be part of his leaving package.

Whether it is right for police officers to be paid bonuses for doing their jobs well is open to debate, but it does not need Sherlock Holmes to work out that Mr Hogg did nothing wrong.

It seems very odd, therefore, that the IPCC should feel the need to refer the case to the CPS.

It seems even odder given the fact that the CPS was never asked to consider the much bigger benefits paid to Cleveland's former Chief Constable Sean Price, especially in view of the fact that he is a disgraced officer.

The handouts to Mr Hogg were chicken-feed in the context of the legal bid by Cleveland Police to reclaim £500,000 paid to Mr Price.

That claim was abandoned this week after Mr Price, who was sacked for gross misconduct, agreed to cough up £23,000.

All parties would now like a nice, tidy line drawn under this expensive and grubby saga but, sorry, the whole thing stinks to high heaven.