To be clear, the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) aims to cut crime and to deliver an effective and efficient police service in the various regions around the UK. The Thames Valley PCC is Anthony Stansfeld, and it is not his job to get involved in civil issues outside his jurisdiction. This is a little like telling a butcher it is not his job to service the engines of an Airbus 350.
The tantalising thing about this story is that we don't know what Mr Stansfield actually said, as it has not been disclosed, but the Thames Valley's police and crime panel invited Mr Stansfeld to "explain his actions" after a complaint was made against him by David Standish and Blair Nimmo, from KPMG, and their legal advisers DLA Piper UK. We in the NTI newsroom suspect that he got in the way of some fairly big guns there and didn't have the firepower to retaliate.
Sifting through the garbage we know that Anthony Stansfeld became involved in "an insolvency matter"; so involved, it seems that KPMG filed a complaint. Our guess is that Stansfield stuck his size 11s into an insolvency case being managed by our great friends at KPMG. The cad.
Stansfield said as the lead for fraud and cyber crime for the Association of PCCs, it was his duty to be concerned with the issue at hand after "thousands have been defrauded by banks, legal practices and accountants". He also said: "A great many organisations and individuals have also written in to my PCP to support my efforts to see that victims of fraud are treated properly, fairly, and are recompensed". So therein lies a clue; something Stansfield said must have been about the connection between an insolvency matter and fraud. Are we getting any closer?
The details of KPMG's complaint are a confidential part of the meeting and have not been disclosed, so that is the end of the story for now, as we at the NTI newsroom are not slaves to speculation ...
... although we bet it was very bad.
As soon as we have more details we will get back to you.
