Standard: Met bill for Maddy soars to £2million

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24032824-met-bill-for-maddy-soars-to-pound-2million.do

Met bill for Maddy soars to £2million

Justin Davenport, Crime Editor
1 Feb 2012


The cost of the Met's review of the Madeleine McCann investigation is set to reach nearly £2 million a year after it was launched, the Evening Standard reveals today.

The bill for 30 detectives, translation and travel expenses has soared since David Cameron called in Scotland Yard last May.

Detectives from the homicide squad were asked to examine the case of the missing three-year-old after the Prime Minister acted on the request of Madeleine's parents. A spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann said: "They have always been very appreciative of the time and resources that the British police and Home Office have committed to the search for Madeleine and they are grateful that the review is ongoing."

Met detectives have made at least four trips to Portugal and Spain to meet police and private investigators who were engaged in the original investigation.

When the review was announced it sparked controversy over the use of public funds. Labour peer Lord Harris has said the case raises "very big questions", adding: "There is clearly an issue about the resources being used."

The cost is disclosed in a document to the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime. Sources say the Met has already sent the Home Office a bill for £800,000 but the figure is expected to reach £1.9 million by the end of the financial year next month.

The bill includes the costs of the detectives' salaries, translation and interpretation fees and travel expenses. Madeleine disappeared from her parents' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve in Portugal on May 3 2007.

She vanished days before her fourth birthday as her parents dined with friends yards away. Since then there have been hundreds of "sightings" of Madeleine around the world but none confirmed.

The official police inquiry into her disappearance was shelved in July 2008 but private detectives employed by the McCanns continued the search.

Scotland Yard says the trips to Portugal, and now Spain, are part of "laying the groundwork" for future co-operation between the police forces.
Officers are examining all the
evidence connected to the case, including material gathered by private investigators.

Detectives have spent months reading a huge file of case material that had to be translated from Portuguese to English at a considerable cost. In December detectives met Spanish colleagues in Barcelona to check on reports that the toddler had been abducted and smuggled across the border.

Private investigators in Spain also handed the Met police team 30 boxes of evidence which they claimed contained up to eight "important new leads".

However, sources say the inquiry could take years to complete and they have played down hopes of a major breakthrough in the review so far.

The cost of the inquiry compares with the £80 million spent on the policing operations to tackle and investigate the summer riots.
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That should set the forkers off again.

Detectives have spent months reading a huge file of case material that had to be translated from Portuguese to English at a considerable cost.

Anyone fancy a small wager that those properly-translated files, like the McCanns' own translated files, aren't quite the same as the ones on Morais' site, and others?

And are very different to anything Levy has had his paws on, like the 'Rogatory statements'?

The more resources / money used the better, a child´s life has no price.

It's a lot of cash, Pedro - but look at the police bill caused by two or three days of rioting in England - £80 million.

In comparison, it is nothing.

And hopefully it will be worth every penny.

Question. Instead of moaning about this, why aren't the forkers complaining about the amount of taxpayers' money that has been wasted by Bennett, with his interminable FOI questions, his endless demands of the police, his relentless pestering of the Home Office, etc?

Not forgetting the cost to the taxpayer of the police having to referee the Bennett/Butler fight.

I bet he's run up a bill not far short of seven figures.

bb1 wrote:Question. Instead of moaning about this, why aren't the forkers complaining about the amount of taxpayers' money that has been wasted by Bennett, with his interminable FOI questions, his endless demands of the police, his relentless pestering of the Home Office, etc?

Not forgetting the cost to the taxpayer of the police having to referee the Bennett/Butler fight.

I bet he's run up a bill not far short of seven figures.

Oh yes. It's as though he thinks he's worth it.

Courtesy of Pedro:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/madeleine-mccann-review-soars-to-2m-6297965.html

Madeleine McCann review soars to £2m

Scotland Yard's review of the Madeleine McCann case is expected to cost nearly £2 million in its first year.

Detectives from the Metropolitan Police's Homicide and Serious Crime Command are carrying out a re-examination of the original investigation into the girl's disappearance in Portugal in May 2007.

Since beginning work last May, the British officers have travelled to Spain and Portugal to pursue lines of inquiry.

Scotland Yard said it expected to recover £1.9 million from the Home Office for the cost of the Madeleine case review up to the end of March this year, of which it has already claimed for £800,000.

Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3 2007 as her parents Kate and Gerry dined with friends nearby.

Portuguese detectives, helped by officers from Leicestershire Police, carried out a massive investigation into her disappearance.

But the official inquiry was formally shelved in July 2008 and since then no police force has been actively looking for the missing child.

Scotland Yard's review of the case, called Operation Grange, was launched after a request from Home Secretary Theresa May supported by Prime Minister David Cameron.

Critics have argued that the decision to bring in Met detectives to review the evidence about what happened to Madeleine has undermined the force's independence and diverted resources from other crime victims.

Hounder:

Precious Police manpower is being diverted to the McCann whitewash report. But hey, murder rates are falling in the capital so everything is OK!

Right this minute, not a single one of Bennett's supporters is in any position to complain about anything. How much do they think this:

http://regretsandramblings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Les-Balkwell-Final-Report-Published-with-foreword-Feb-1.pdf

cost the taxpayer?

With that on top of the taxpayers' money Bennett has wasted on insisting the police read his stupid 'dossiers', making complaints to and about various police forces, demanding 'answers' knowing full well they could not legally be forthcoming, pestering the Home Office, and demanding the police referee his fight with Butler...

I SHOULD THINK BENNETT AND HIS ASSORTED OBSESSIONS HAVE COST THE BRITISH TAXPAYER MORE THAN HAS SO FAR BEEN SPENT ON THE YARD'S EFFORTS TO FIND A MISSING CHILD.

So I suggest a period of silence on the subject from the hounders and forkers would be appropriate.

Same story here:

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/233200/Madeleine-McCann-hunt-cops-bill-soars-to-2m/

and here:

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/299554/Cost-of-new-police-hunt-for-missing-Madeleine-McCann-soars-to-2-million

bb1 wrote:Hounder:

Precious Police manpower is being diverted to the McCann whitewash report. But hey, murder rates are falling in the capital so everything is OK!

Right this minute, not a single one of Bennett's supporters is in any position to complain about anything. How much do they think this:

http://regretsandramblings.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Les-Balkwell-Final-Report-Published-with-foreword-Feb-1.pdf

cost the taxpayer?

With that on top of the taxpayers' money Bennett has wasted on insisting the police read his stupid 'dossiers', making complaints to and about various police forces, demanding 'answers' knowing full well they could not legally be forthcoming, pestering the Home Office, and demanding the police referee his fight with Butler...

I SHOULD THINK BENNETT AND HIS ASSORTED OBSESSIONS HAVE COST THE BRITISH TAXPAYER MORE THAN HAS SO FAR BEEN SPENT ON THE YARD'S EFFORTS TO FIND A MISSING CHILD.

So I suggest a period of silence on the subject from the hounders and forkers would be appropriate.

What do you expect from one so reality challenged, Bonny?

this is truly disgusting: these morons / antis criticizes the resources or money which is being used (as it should be) in the search of innocent child, who can still be found alive, but, these morons don´t criticize the money gonçalo amaral made, with his lies, smears, defamation, at the expenses of innocents, betrayed by gonçalo amaral.