Vetting of sacked police chief failed, inquiry finds

Basic checks were not carried out in the recruitment of a chief constable who was later found to have lied about his career, an inquiry has found.

A new report said Northamptonshire Police made assumptions about Nick Adderley's vetting status and did not verify his education and qualifications.

Mr Adderley was sacked when he was found to have invented key details of his Royal Navy service.

Acting chief constable Ivan Balhatchet described it as "a very dark chapter" in the force's history.

The internal investigation found that when he was recruited in July 2018, Developed Vetting (DV) documents for Mr Adderley were received from his previous force, Staffordshire.

People who have successfully completed DV, which is a national process, can have access to highly sensitive information, including documents marked 'top secret'.

But these forms contained inaccurate dates for his military service, investigators found, and Northamptonshire Police had also assumed he held a prerequisite local clearance called Management Vetting (MV).

The report stated that there was no record any MV documents had been sent and there had been no follow up enquiries about this.

When Mr Adderley did submit to a new MV process in 2023, he stated he had served in the navy for ten years, whereas on the previous DV forms he put down the true length of service of two years, but with the wrong end date, the report added.

It described how he had also left out his rank and service number on the MV form which "was not identified at the time and no follow up question/enquiry made".

This was a "national lesson" the force said, continuing: "We want the Home Office to consider some legal change to make DV and MV talk to each other seamlessly."

It also emerged that the National Security Vetting Service (NSVS) did not hold a record of Mr Adderley's DV clearance, with the report noting that at the time it had been moving from paper to electronic records.

A gross misconduct hearing in June heard how the former Chief Constable had claimed to have served in the Falklands War, despite being aged only 15 at the time of the conflict.

He also lied on his CV about his length of Royal Navy service and attending officer training, as well as wearing a South Atlantic Medal to which he was not entitled.

Shortly afterwards, Mr Balhatchett initiated an investigation into Mr Adderley's recruitment and ordered checks into the qualifications of his most senior officers.

All were able to produce degree certificates except one, and an enquiry has been made with the relevant individual's stated university.

Mr Balhatchet said: “I am absolutely determined to get right to the heart of all the issues which have surfaced since the original allegations were brought to the attention of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) a year ago."

He continued: "This report is difficult reading because there undoubtedly were very significant failings in the processes leading up to the appointment of Nick Adderley in 2018 and the handling of his vetting renewal in 2023.

"We are taking robust action to ensure this situation will never arise again and that officers and staff, as well as the communities we serve across Northamptonshire, have the utmost confidence in our processes going forward.”

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Danielle Stone, added: “It’s disappointing that more thorough checks were not carried out when Nick Adderley was appointed.

"I’m pleased that the lessons have been learned, and processes and systems will be strengthened, and standards raised to give the public confidence in the recruitment of senior police officers.

“I’ve already begun conversations with the Home Office to highlight the gap between national and local systems and to explore what can be done," Ms Stone said.

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