A POLICE boss who quit his post after being accused of bullying has received nearly £18,000 in fees since announcing his resignation.

Andrew Flanagan, whose last day as Scottish Police Authority chair was on Friday, pocketed around £450 a day after the Government took months to find a replacement.

Moi Ali, a former SPA board member, called on Flanagan to donate the money to charity.

The SPA was set up to oversee Police Scotland, but the body has been fiercely criticised over its performance and attitude towards openness.

A review by Flanagan last year led to the SPA backing private committee meetings and restricting the publication of board papers until the day of the meeting.

The policies angered transparency campaigners and led to Ali, at that point a board member, publicly dissenting.

Flanagan sent Ali a letter in which he criticised her for speaking out and informed her it would not be fair for her to participate in SPA committees. Ali resigned and her decision to quit put enormous pressure on Flanagan to explain his treatment of her.

Asked by a Labour MSP whether Flanagan’s letter amounted to bullying, Ali told a Holyrood committee earlier this year: “Yes. I believe that it did.”

Flanagan also failed to pass on a letter to the SPA board, written by HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland Derek Penman, that was critical of the secrecy proposals.

Penman later concluded that the “concerns over openness and transparency have weakened public confidence in the SPA and detracted from its ability to perform its statutory function".

Political and media scrutiny eventually led to Flanagan announcing his resignation on June 14.

However, the Scottish Government, whose job it was to hire a successor, was criticised for a delay in installing a replacement.

It was only in mid November – five months after Flanagan quit – that ex-Labour Minister Susan Deacon was announced as the next chair. She starts tomorrow.

According to the SPA, Flanagan worked 39 days between the day of his resignation and the end of October, for which he received £17,617. The figures for November were not provided and will be available this month.

Ali said: “Given that Andrew Flanagan remained in post for months after two parliamentary committees and HMICS [Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland] had lost confidence in his leadership, he might wish to consider donating his £18,000 earnings from the SPA during that period either to the police benevolent fund, a victim support charity or some other worthy cause that needs the money more than he does.”

Scottish Tory shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: “This is a completely unacceptable situation. The public will be furious that a senior figure who handed in his resignation is still being paid eye-watering sums. For an organisation supposedly in financial trouble, this is a disgrace. The SPA and the Scottish Government should have sorted this out long before now.”

An SPA spokesperson: "In signalling his resignation, Mr Flanagan offered, and the Cabinet Secretary agreed, that he stay in post until a successor is in place."