Scotland Yard probes BBC fraud allegations
A team of detectives from the Metropolitan Police have been assigned to investigate BBC management over claims that excess payments to departing bosses amounted to fraud, at the request of an MP.
The team will sift through information relating to pay-offs amounting to £60m awarded to senior managers between April 2005 and the end of March this year.
Concern has been building that the sums involved exceeded contractual obligations, particularly in the case of 150 top executives who quit in the three years to December. They were awarded £25m between them but a quarter received more than they were entitled to, leaving a discrepancy of £1m.
Amongst the executives to be embroiled in the scandal are former director general George Entwistle who was given £25k more than he was legally entitled to in his £450k pay-off.
In a letter to Rob Wilson MP, seen by the Telegraph, Mark Rowley, assistant commissioner, specialist crime and operations wrote: “We are currently gathering information to assist with our assessment and a decision will be made as to whether we progress to a full investigation in due course."
Speaking to the paper Wilson said: “The BBC should never have got itself into a position where the fraud squad is looking at an investigation. However, something is not right about these huge pay-offs and potential wrongdoing needs to be ruled out. The police are the only organisation in a position to do that.”