Commissioner says chief constable’s contempt case has left ‘huge questions’ to be answered
Northamptonshire's police and crime commissioner faced a grilling this morning about chief constable contempt case
By Sarah Ward
Northants police and crime commissioner has said the chief constable being found guilty of contempt has left ‘huge questions to be answered’.
Labour politician Danielle Stone faced a grilling from the Northamptonshire Police and Crime Panel at an extraordinary meeting held in Northampton this morning as councillors wanted answers about what led to chief constable Ivan Balhatchet being found guilty of contempt of court by judges this month.
The case, which only came to public attention this month, revealed that Northants Police had withheld video evidence from a woman who claimed she was wrongly arrested by officers when her vehicle was stopped on a Northants A road in 2021. She was charged but her case was dropped by the crown prosecution service.
Only after four years of court action did Nadine Buzzard -Quashie finally manage to get Northants Police to disclose all the evidence. It emerged that staff had made several false statements to judges as the legal action progressed through the courts.
The chief constable, who has said he only became aware of the matter last month, was found guilty of contempt of court on November 11 after civil action taken by Nadine Buzzard-Quashie and ordered to pay £50,000. The cost looks likely to be borne by the Northants tax payer.
Handing down the sentence last week, the judge said it was a ‘troubling case’ and admonished the chief constable for failing to comply with court directions and file documents on time, even after being found guilty of contempt.
The case revealed that witness statements from serving Northants Police staff had to be withdrawn and the force had to bring in new legal counsel at the last minute.
At today’s meeting Danielle Stone, who was elected in May 2024, said there were ‘huge questions’ about the chief constable’s lack of awareness of the court action. She said he had become aware of the case on October 22, that her own office had been informed on November 3 and she had been told on November 4.
She said she had considered suspending the chief constable, but had decided it was not appropriate ‘at that time’.
She said since his sentencing the chief constable had ‘acted swiftly’ and put in place a number of measures including establishing a gold command group of senior officers to look at the matter; instructing a peer review by another force and asking for a policy review of all cases involving body worn camera to extend the retention time.
But she told the panel she was not content with that and had wanted to carry out her own independent review, which will be led by her deputy alongside an independent person. The terms of reference of the review will be sorted by Christmas with the findings reported in the new year.
She said:
“One of the things I want to be assured of is, this can’t ever happen again.
We need to know what went wrong. We need to be assured how it came to be and I and the public need to be assured that it can’t happen again.”
She said the situation had ‘set us back’ but did not know by how much.
A number of councillors on the panel expressed concern that the chief constable had been unaware of the court action against him.
Leader of the Labour group on West Northamptonshire Council Sally Keeble said she ‘struggled with the notion of having a chief constable who has a conviction for contempt.’
She also questioned why Balhatchet had not asked before he was officially appointed to the job in January 2025, having taken over as interim chief constable in October 2023, about whether there were any skeletons in the closet ‘ as it was in his interests to do so’.
Cllr Graham Cheatley (Reform UK) queried whether the commissioner had undertaken a high risk audit around litigation when she took office and she said she had not as ‘I have people to advise me and nobody did. No one knew.
Reform UK cllr Craig Morris, who is a former Northants Police officer and declared an interest in having worked with Ivan Balhatchet many years ago, advised the commissioner to check the force undertaking the peer review and to ‘make damn sure’ the person nominated was not on the command course with the chief constable.
His Reform UK colleague Cllr Vinnie Whitrow, said he had no faith in senior officers investigating what had gone on.
He said:
“The other thing that gets me is this gold group. Gold group are made up of individuals that are high rank in the police service, of Northamptonshire. I wonder how many of those in 2021 were involved with this and now find themselves in the gold panel because they have moved up the ranks.
“This isn’t in my view, even with the involvement of an outside force, going to be at all unbiased or transparent in the eyes of the public and the big thing people are forgetting at the moment is that £50,000 came from the public.
“I don’t believe it is going to be transparent because they are marking their own homework. So I have no faith in that.”
Danielle Stone said the gold group would be chaired by a chief superintendent who has just arrived at the force and she had confidence in the process.
After the meeting NN Journal asked Danielle Stone if she would sack the chief constable if it transpired he did know about the court action before last month and she said she was not going to pre-empt the investigation.
This month could be argued to be among the worst on record for Northants Police. It’s serving chief constable and previous chief constable Nick Adderley have appeared in court linked to matters of dishonesty and after a review the police watchdog has said four officers should be investigated by professional standards for their involvement with murdered Indian woman Harshita Brella, who police think was killed by her husband before being bundled into a car boot and driven to in East London.
Harshita, who had been living and working in Corby, had been under a domestic violence protection order before her killing and her husband, Pankaj Lamba, who has been charged with her murder, is still on the run and believed to be near Delhi. The case has made international headlines and Harshita’s family have been critical of Northants Police and Indian authorities.
The commissioner also announced today that Northants Police is currently undergoing a national inspection, which should conclude in the new year.
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‘Troubling case’: Chief constable fined £50,000 by appeal court judges for contempt
Northamptonshire’s chief constable has been fined £50,000 today for contempt of court.