Lenny Harper, who was the senior investigating officer at the start of the investigation, defended his record at a Scrutiny hearing yesterday.
During the hearing, called to look into an auditors’ review of the spending on the £7.5m investigation, he gave evidence via a telephone link, saying that he and his boss had pleaded for a budget to work to, but kept being told they had a ‘blank cheque’.
That review criticised him for letting spending run completely out of control, and painted a picture of him and other officers living a celebrity lifestyle with hotel stays and expensive meals in top restaurants with the taxpayer picking up the tab.
• See Tuesday’s JEP for the full report
