Police chief under fire

ACCUSED . . . one of Chief Supt Caroline Ball’s former officers says she is guilty of a lack of integrity

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Tribunal hears dishonesty claim

The head of Oldham police has been accused of dishonesty and a lack of integrity by one of her former officers at a Manchester employment tribunal.

Chief Supt Caroline Ball added the signature of Insp Steve McGarry to a report which he claims he never saw, read or witnessed.

The document stated that Insp McGarry should not be promoted to chief inspector because he was not ready for the advanced role. She told the tribunal he called into her office the next day “agitated and shouting” saying he had performed well. Eventually, he appealed and then launched a grievance procedure.

Now, Insp McGarry is making a case against the force he works for, Greater Manchester Police, claiming he suffered detrimentally because his disclosures about her actions were never properly investigated by senior officers.

Yesterday, the pair faced each other across the room as Chief Supt Ball’s evidence was cross-examined by Insp McGarry.

Insp McGarry, now working at Bootle Street in Manchester city centre, was an acting chief inspector in Oldham until 2007, having passed his assessment but not the promotion board. The case involves the report about his lack of suitability for promotion, written by Chief Supt Ball.

She admitted to the hearing that she added his name to the report, but says she had a conversation with him first about why she was not recommending him for the higher rank.

Chief Supt Ball admitted: “I now regret inserting the claimant’s name in the development report but I had typed the names of other officers into such reports in the past.”

She admitted she had first congratulated Insp McGarry on passing his chief inspectors assessment in 2005, when he was working for an assistant chief constable.

He had returned to Oldham in 2006 and became a temporary chief inspector. But by September, 2006, she had changed her assessment of him, and when he told her early in 2007 he would apply for promotion, she could not support him.

She added: “I felt he was not ready for promotion as he was not at senior leadership team level.

“I was of the view that he would perform better at project rather than command level.”

Chief Supt Steve Heywood, of the Serious Crime Division, who sat on the promotion board, told the tribunal that Insp McGarry was turned down because of his interview, adding: “He performed inadequately, the panel expected more.”

He denied Insp McGarry raised the issue of misrepresentation by his signature on the document, saying if he had “quite clearly we would have done something.”


:: The hearing continues.