Police robbed of millions in plane fraud

BThe bulk of the pounds 5m stolen from Scotland Yard by its former accountant Anthony Williams came from the funding of a secret spotter plane used to combat the IRA.

Williams, 55, who was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years on 19 charges of theft at the Old Bailey yesterday, was in sole charge of the financing operation, started in 1986 and still continuing at his arrest in July last year. The Independent has learned that only a handful of senior Scotland Yard officers knew of the existence of the Cessna light aircraft which was used to watch suspected terrorist hide-outs and arms caches.

Scotland Yard would only say yesterday that Williams was involved in the running of a "secret fund" in the fight against "serious and organised crime". In fact, for eight years, he administered two companies behind the anti-terrorist surveillance aircraft, which was based at an airfield in Surrey. Williams requisitioned expenses for the plane without any questions being asked.

The existence of the plane was kept secret and its ownership hidden behind the companies so that IRA terrorists could not trace it back to Scotland Yard. It was registered to a company address in west London.

While it was called upon in some major non-terrorist incidents, the plane's main duty was to counter the IRA's mainland bombing campaign. In 1989, it was used in a successful operation which led to the capture of two IRA activists at an arms dump at an isolated beach on the Pembrokeshire coast in South Wales.

Damien McComb and Liam O'Dhuibhir were caught after a seven-week stakeout code-named Operation Pebble. They were each jailed for 30 years in December 1990. Semtex from the cache was said by police to have been used in the bombing of the Royal Marines barracks at Deal in Kent.

Williams was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the aircraft. He remained at Scotland Yard, drawing down cash for the aircraft when required. Over eight years he requisitioned pounds 7m for the running costs of the plane, including fuel, of which only pounds 2m was actually spent. The rest went into Williams's pocket. Critically, the Independent understands, no one who operated the aircraft was ever consulted about its running costs.

A member of the Yard's civilian staff since 1959, Williams, who had risen to the rank of deputy finance director, enjoyed the complete trust of his senior operational colleagues. In fact, the court was told, he had already started stealing small amounts from the Metropolitan Police's Staff Welfare Fund before he was asked to fund the secret operation.

The pounds 5m was used by Williams, from New Malden, Surrey, to buy a large portion of the Scottish village of Tomintoul, properties in the south of England and Spain. He also acquired a manorial title and in Scotland was known as Lord Williams of Chirnside. When asked by anyone, including his wife, where the money had come from, the pounds 42,000-a-year civil servant said it was a bequest from a Norwegian uncle.

Said by his barrister to be "full of remorse" for what he had done, Williams received the maximum sentence allowed by law. He also asked for another 535 offences to be taken into consideration.

At a press conference, Sir Paul Condon, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, offered an "unreserved apology" to the people of London for the abuse of their funds. While he was "angry and embarrassed that the courageous work of police officers has been betrayed", Sir Paul confidently asserted that this was a unique case that would never be repeated.

He emphasised that Williams was not involved on the operational side - quashing speculation that he had been engaged in the payment of informers. Some of those who set up the funding scheme, Sir Paul said, had left the force.

Wilfred Hyde, a former deputy secretary at the Home Office, conducted "a full review of procedures and controls." This study, Sir Paul said, "found no evidence of theft and corruption other than by Williams himself".

Only pounds 1m of the pounds 5m he stole is likely to be recovered.

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