Officer claims mail was opened

From the archive, first published Tuesday 12th Feb 2008.

A police force is investigating a complaint by a Bradford officer that his mail was tampered with when an employment tribunal was considering his claim of race discrimination against West Yorkshire Police.

Peter Richmond, 45, claims a letter containing sensitive correspondence with his solicitor had been opened before it was posted to his Skipton home as the tribunal was being held last June.

The tribunal eventually ruled against Sgt Richmond, who had complained he had suffered race discrimination when he was passed over for promotion to inspector in favour of an Asian officer in the Bradford North division.

But an investigation has been started by North Yorkshire Police into his mail tampering allegations.

Sgt Richmond's MP David Curry (Con, Skipton) has also asked Police Minister Tony McNulty to look into the case.

The officer, who now works in the Bradford South division, said: "I took the letter from my solicitors to Skipton police station and reported it as an offence of mail tampering.

"I gave North Yorkshire Police a firm reason why somebody might want to look at the mail and some positive lines of inquiry and they said they would investigate it."

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "North Yorkshire Police is investigating the allegations."

Sgt Richmond has also asked police watchdog the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to mount its own investigation because he is unhappy at not being given any information by North Yorkshire Police about the progress of the inquiry.

He said: "I have heard nothing back from them (North Yorkshire Police) and, despite phone calls to inspectors, I have never been given a result. I am surprised because there are positive lines of inquiry they can follow."

A spokesman for the IPCC confirmed that that it had received a complaint from Sgt Richmond but he said it had no duty to carry out its own inquiry and it had handed the matter back to North Yorkshire Police to deal with it.

Mr Curry was abroad yesterday and unavailable for comment.

Mr McNulty's office would not comment and referred the Telegraph & Argus to the Home Office.

A Home Office spokesman said: "This is a matter for the police to respond to and it would be inappropriate for the Home Office to comment on this."

West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman, Tom McGhie, said: "We supported Peter Richmond all the way through the tribunal and feel it would be inappropriate to comment."

The investigation comes during a national debate about the use of police using clandestine tactics to gather information.

They came to light after it emerged a police officer had bugged Tooting MP Sadiq Khan as he visited terror suspect Babar Ahmad at Woodhill prison in 2005 and 2006.

Former Thames Valley Detective Sergeant Mark Kearney later claimed he was pressurised by the Metropolitan Police to secretly record the meeting.

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