Justice will suffer as Tory crime chief is investigated by her own police force

Alison Hernandez.

Alison Hernandez.

This is why elected, political police commissioners are a bad idea.

This one is accused of a crime, but is in charge of the police officers investigating her.

Expect jokes along these lines: “Being a crime commissioner doesn’t mean you’re supposed to commission crimes!” Yes, I know it’s weak.

What chance does justice have, in such a situation?

If she is found innocent, nobody will believe it and the integrity of Devon and Cornwall Police will be called into question.

If she is charged and convicted, nothing less than the maximum sentence will do, or people will believe she was let off lightly because of her privileged position.

Who benefits from that?

There are calls for a new Tory crime boss to “stand aside” while she is being investigated by her own police force for alleged election fraud.

Devon and Cornwall Police Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez is accused of failing to declare election spending during the 2015 general election following an investigation by the Daily Mirror.

The force is one of eight around the country investigating up to ten sitting Tory MPs and Ms Hernandez was the election agent for one of them.

She faces a possible one year jail sentence if found guilty.

Last week, Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed that it has launched an investigation into claims, first revealed in the Mirror, that more than two dozen Conservative MPs who were aided by activists on board Tory battlebuses failed to declare the costs of the buses and hotel bills than ran into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Source: Tory crime chief is investigated by her own police force for ‘election fraud’ – Mirror Online

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8 thoughts on “Justice will suffer as Tory crime chief is investigated by her own police force

  1. Tony Dean

    Breaking news:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-36246634

    PCC Alison Hernandez ‘should stand aside’ over expenses probe
    24 minutes ago
    From the section Devon
    The BBC understands Devon and Cornwall Police will bring in another force to investigate the expenses allegations.

    A senior officer said: “Anything which could appear to be a conflict of interest has to be avoided.”

    Adrian Sanders, the former Lib Dem MP for Torbay, who was beaten by Mr Foster in the 2015 General Election, said Ms Hernandez “should stand aside” during the investigation.

  2. paulrutherford8

    There were quite a lot of intentionally spoiled ballot papers at the count I was an agent at yesterday, mostly saying what a waste of taxpayers money these commissioners are.

    I didn’t, however, spot mine!!!

  3. John

    Slightly off topic I know, but the force in question, have seemingly passed the investigation on to another force, to avoid “conflict of interest” arising. On topic (I think?), I’ve never completely understood exactly what a PCC does?

    1. Mike Sivier Post author

      Basically, police forces used to be run by unpaid committees of no particular political slant; now they are run by paid commissioners belonging to political parties (although some may stand as independents).

      1. John

        That’s an awful lot of power for someone who could be guilty of fraud! (especially electoral fraud)

Comments are closed.