Scotland Yard blew almost £1million of taxpayer cash on overtime for failed Sun probe
Total bill for witch-hunt against journalists was £20million
POLICE blew almost £1million on overtime during a witch-hunt against Sun journalists.
A total of £904,046 was given to junior officers on Operation Elveden, a bungled investigation into payments to sources.
Just one journalist was convicted after trial and is now appealing, leaving the public with a £20million bill.
One detective constable raked in £13,591 in overtime in 2013-14, half a typical DC’s annual pay.
Scotland Yard chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe piled resources into the probe, even though his force cut £389.5million from its budget from 2011 to 2013.
Last night a retired senior Met cop said: “A million quid is a huge sum for overtime on a desk job like Elveden. Its team was full of promotion-hungry officers desperate to make a mark.”
Operation Weeting, the probe into phone-hacking, clocked up £1.06million in overtime over four years.
Operation Tuleta, which got one conviction of a journalist, paid £82,714 in overtime.