Police duo still off work
Wednesday 7th July 2010, 3:00PM BST.
The two officers were cleared of disciplinary charges in February, but have still not returned to work
TWO formerly suspended senior-ranking police officers who were cleared of all disciplinary charges in February have still not returned to work.
They were originally suspended almost two years ago on full pay after a woman they knew claimed that she had been ‘groomed’ and sexually assaulted on a boat in the Elizabeth Marina.
But despite being cleared of any criminal or disciplinary wrongdoing, and their suspension being formerly lifted in February, the two officers have still not returned to work.
‘They have taken some holiday leave in the period since and I do not think they have returned to work,’ Senator Le Marquand told the States yesterday. ‘It would not be appropriate to say why they are not at work. I am not going into details, as they are entitled to a degree of privacy, as is any other state employee.’
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee
JEP Jubilee Editions
Saturday 2 June: Guide to Celebrations
Wednesday 6 June: Souvenir of Events
View The Queen in Jersey supplement
Travel
To, from and around the Island
Airport Arrivals/Departures
Harbours Arrivals/Departures
Bus Information/Timetables
This is Jersey
Jersey Evening Post
Useful links
not while we are paying them – full pay, again you need to ask how to save money
Report abuse
Only a states employee could take this much time off work with full pay, in the private sector the investigation would have been concluded within 3 months and the employee either sacked or brought back to work.
Report abuse
Two years off on full pay and then they take ‘holiday leave’. Is this the calibre of ‘state employee’ we have in Jersey.?
Report abuse
What about our rights Mr Le Marquand….you are paying them with our money.
Report abuse
They have been off work on full pay (again) for five months and Senator Le Marquand Does not think they are back at work. Perhaps he should find out and let the paying public know.
Report abuse
This makes my blood boil! Having had almost 2 years off work,on full pay, they then get leave! It is 4 months since the matter was concluded so what are they doing now? Why doesn’t the minister responsible for the police even know if they are at work? Has he ever made a simple phone call to ask?Finally,how much has this fiasco cost us? As usual,no answers will be received, because our politicians feel themselves to be accountable to no one but themselves,so Joe Public can go whistle in the wind for all they care.
Report abuse
Two years, I’ll try that again, TWO YEARS!
To complete an investigation!
Then they can go on ‘holiday’ for how many months?
Is it any wonder that the states are unable to reduce their budgets!
Isn’t their chief of police under suspension?
I wonder how much holiday he has saved up?
More wasted money, how many more times do we have to hear the same stories?
Who is responsible for this situation?
Report abuse
It’s maybe more appropriate to question the value of Mr Le Marquand?
Report abuse
What a joke ! How dare the states keep taking a large part of my hard-earned money in tax and wasting it ! The island is trying to reduce costs and a deficit so achieve a cost reduction by getting rid of Le Marquand for his total incompetence and allowing this to happen !
Report abuse
If they are still off I have to say fair play to them. I can only imagine what it must have been like for them to go through months of anguish over whether or not they were going to lose their jobs as well as the probable intimidation/humiliation from their former friends and colleagues whilst they were facing these (now proven) false allegations.
Try walking a mile in the shoes of others before you criticize them…
Report abuse
If they raise their recruitment educational requirements these daft decisions would be minimised.
Report abuse
I’ll cut the police officers in question a little slack – long periods off work are not easy to handle, especially if people are throwing accusations at you. Getting them back to full-time work might have to be staged over a period, though a decent HR department would probably have got them back up to speed in 3 months.
But I’m not prepared to give Le Marquand an inch. Not on the privacy issue: but on the vagueness of whether the officers are or aren’t back at work. The States has an appalling track record on overlong full pay suspensions, and we the electorate have every right to an assurance that things are being moved in the right direction at pace. That he cannot give that assurance calls his fitness to be a minister seriously into question.
Report abuse
You get what you vote for. Or don’t as the case maybe.
Report abuse
The question that should be asked is why two years?
There are many suspensions that we never here of so this is not uncommon. What should happen is susspension without pay and then if found not guilty the money refunded. This case was proven to be not guilty but so many are proven guilty nd they are being paid for years by the tax payer. I am certain things would move a lot quicker if they were off without pay.It would seem to me with all the comments from the public on this site on showing how to save the tax payers money this Island could be saving a fortune but no one is lisitening as usual.
Report abuse
Can i apply for their jobs…sounds amazing!
Report abuse
Comment 10 Disheartened
If they are still off I have to say fair play to them. I can only imagine what it must have been like for them to go through months of anguish over whether or not they were going to lose their jobs as well as the probable intimidation/humiliation from their former friends and colleagues whilst they were facing these (now proven) false allegations.
Try walking a mile in the shoes of others before you criticize them…
I don’t think anyone is criticising the officers, rather the system that kept them waiting for 2 years to find out the outcome. I’m sure they would have wanted a swift resolution to allow them to put this behind them.
It simply does not take 2 years to carry out an investigation, as I previously said this is routinely done within 3 months in the private sector.
There is a strong voice of discontent here over the way one the one hand we are being told we will be paying more tax and on the other seeing time and again our hard earned money squandered.
Report abuse
Kate comment 14 –
What should happen is susspension without pay and then if found not guilty the money refunded
Are you serious, you are saying they should have been suspended without pay for 2 years until found not guilty then the money refunded?
How would they live in the meantime? how would they pay rent/mortgage, feed themselves and their families, pay the bills. This would be a bigger punishment than the suspension and remember they were found NOT GUILTY.
Report abuse
I call for the money to be repaid.
Payment should stop on suspension, after all, it is a punishment. They shouldn’t earn a single penny whilst they are not working.
Report abuse
Jersey Boy, perhaps you don’t understand the word “suspension”. Ask a teacher or other grown up to explain it to you…
Report abuse
Jersey Boy 18 – I call for the money to be repaid
What should happen is suspension without pay and then if found not guilty the money refunded
As per my response to Kate who said the same thing,THEY WERE FOUND INNOCENT!
You think that they should repay the money even though they were not guilty? it’s not their fault the useless states took 2 years to investigate the case, that’s 2 years of neighbours talking behind their backs, colleagues ignoring them and them not knowing what was going to happen.
my god there are some idiots posting on this forum.
Report abuse
Here we have an ex magistrate playing at politics and failing dramatically,,this case is one of a host of unsatisfactory situations presided over by this man…take the case against Graham Power,it is claimed ther is evidence against him..But Oh well we won’t proceed now as he’s retiring anyway..Hello…? and then the plain illegal harvesting of evidence against Curtis Warren in France and the illegal bugging there,And what doe Ian say ..In certain cases it is o.k. to break the law for the greater objective…Well Mr Le M. it most certainly is NOT and as a Lawyer you jolly well know that…so here we are again zillions of quids wasted in wages and assorted faffing about..none of this would be tolerated in the private sector.as it could not be afforded…and then to cap it all he admits he does not even know if they’re back to work or not…It’s your duty to know…what a total Fred Carno’s as a politician you are a flop mate.
Report abuse
How exactly can we speculate like this? How do we know they are not ill? Using their holiday entitlement? Have been asked not to return yet?
Do you really think that if you are a policeman you can refuse to show up for work for month and still get paid for it? are you SERIOUS?
How about using your minds before slating people like this. Irrisponsible of JEP to publish this story without any actual facts. This is clearly just stiring it up
Report abuse
+18 Jersey Boy.
The purpose of suspension is to protect the accused and the ones they work with until the truth is determined. During that time they aren’t guilty of anything, so how can you penalise someone for something they are not yet guilty of.
Onto present matters, it used to be the case that if officers went ‘sick’ after their case was dealt with, their pay was cut.
Report abuse
#10 Disheartened, these kind of things happen all the time to all sorts of people. There are also other things that can happen to employees that leave them in a similarly difficult situation. It’s unfortunate, but it’s called life and sometimes it’s reall s**t.
What doesn’t normally happen is the employee being off for 2 years on full pay, and that cannot be justified no matter how terrible a situation this was for the two men involved.
I didn’t get paid leave from work after being seriously sexually harrassed (the man admitted it to our employer and resigned from his post). I had to return to work where I ended up being signed off with ‘stress’ because some female staff who fancied him bullied me about it, it was statutory sick pay for me! Then upon return to work the company set about making my job redundant. THAT’s what happens in the private sector even when you are the victim!
Report abuse
Only in Jersey. There is no way these lengthy suspensions would be tolerated in the private sector. Never mind there are others who have been suspended for lots longer, was it a docker or somebody that was suspended for 7 years some years ago. Nice to see the police chief matter is now all done, 2 years off a million quid plus costs investigation and he sails off into the sunset with no doubt a huge pension. Never mind the rest of us will just keep working til we get to 65 and keep paying the tax increases to cover these events.
Report abuse
Stan Dinstill,
True what you say about the 2 years to investigate, But They were meant to be back at work 3 months ago! me thinks there taking the Pi**
Or do people get a holiday after being off work for 2 years?
Report abuse
Well said #8
Perharps we should look at the common denominator in the issues arrising over the police force on this island. Perhaps the problem lies with mr Le Marquand rather then the average bobby trying to earn a living and protect the public.
If this sort of thing is happening and Ian Le Marquand doesnt even know the facts (if they were working or not) then perhaps he is the one not performing his duties for which im sure he is being renumerated handsomley!!
That gives me 1 idea on how we can quickly cut some costs….
Report abuse
Disheartened,
When friends of mine shot a terrorist in Northern Ireland, in the 1980′s they were off work on full pay for about 2 weeks while the investigation went on. During this time they had 3 days home on leave and the rest of that time they would be training, which included firearms training!
The politically correct (no pun intended!) or PC brigade have dictated that in the case of such trauma people need time to recoup and gather their mental and physical strength again. But this is surely taking the publics money and treating them with disdain and contempt in return.
The perfect way to restore confidence in our government and keep costs to a managable minimum would be to return these officers to some sort of operational status as soon as possible.
Report abuse
Can i just clarify:
Someone has stolen my nickname. I am not the poster at number 18.
I am the real Jersey boy I am however the poster at number 27
Just need to clear my name
Report abuse
Disgraceful and they are suppose to be pillars of the community….what is this island coming to….2 years do you not think you can solve issues alot quicker and smarter, all of this is at the cost of tax payers and they are at home having a lovely time getting an steady income every month, this is a joke…
Whoever is dealing with this case should get a grip and work harder and think smarter and stop wasting tax payer monies…
Report abuse
Time to call in Sherlock Holmes…an independent expert…”What is it Watson”…we seem to have a police force here that can’t police,they don’t know who is at work or should be and can’t investigate a serious complaint against two of their own,I asked but was told when in doubt send everyone on holiday for a slong as possible with full pay….Hmnn I suspect that my old adversary Fu Man Chu has had a hand in this,The old chinese “Wait ’till the dust settles ploy..
Report abuse
“At home having a lovely time?” Are you based on this planet?? They were accused of a serious sexual assault, which after 2 years they were completely cleared of. How would you have dealt with that? Would you have thought you were having a lovely time? Words at this point fail me…
Report abuse
I agree with disheartened, It must be very hard to go back into an environment where you have been accused of such an awful crime, and if they were high ranking officers as was reported in the J.E.P how can they then command the respect of their workforce.
Report abuse