One of Scotland Yard's most experienced anti-terrorist officers was jailed for 10 months yesterday after admitting an expenses scam involving tens of thousands of pounds.
Detective Sergeant Richard de Cadenet, 39, who worked on a number of high-profile operations including investigations into the July 7, 2005, attacks on London, misused an American Express card issued to him by the Metropolitan Police to the tune of more than £73,000, Southwark Crown Court heard.
The court was told the illicit expenditure included a holiday in Thailand worth £6452, a holiday in Mexico worth more than £9000, thousands of pounds of spending on clothes and electrical goods and cash withdrawals.
Sentencing him to 10 months' imprisonment, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin, QC, said: "You will have to serve one-half of the sentence I am about to impose.
"You will have to serve the remainder of the sentence if you get into any further trouble within the overall period of the sentence, or if you breach any of the licence conditions."
David Levy, prosecuting, told the court the amount of illicit expenditure by de Cadenet amounted to £73,669.18.
He said there had been supermarket expenditure of £5910, and spending on clothing of nearly £3500.
He added that de Cadenet had also spent more than £3000 on electrical goods and withdrawn more than £18,000 in cash.
The court also heard that the card had been used to pay for a box at a Premiership football ground, in which de Cadenet's estranged father had been entertained.
He said the policy in force at the time in the Metropolitan Police had been for the cards to allow officers to pay for legitimate expenses such as hotel bills and travelling while working outside the Metropolitan Police district.
He said in certain urgent circumstances officers sometimes had to stay in hotels and after the event they would be allowed to seek approval for use of the cards.
He said officers were supposed to submit a monthly "reconciliation" of expenditure to the Metropolitan Police Authority, but this had not taken place in the case of de Cadenet.
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