Northants senior police officer and two staff criminally investigated about ‘perverting the course of justice’ allegations
Exclusive: Police watchdog the IOPC has served notice on three Northants Police staff in relation to the contempt of court case that saw chief constable fined
By Sarah Ward
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The police watchdog has started a criminal investigation into a Northants senior police officer and two staff over perverting the course of justice allegations.
The matter is in relation to a legal case, which last autumn saw Northants Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet found to have been in contempt of court and fined £50,000. The civil case had been brought by Londonder Nadine Buzzard Quashie, who had been fighting the force for bodyworn footage of her arrest in Northamptonshire in September 2021, that she claims was unlawful.
After going through the county courts, the dispute went all the way up to the court of appeal and Buzzard Quashie was awarded costs after Northants Police at the eleventh hour admitted it did have undisclosed, bodyworn footage, contrary to what had been said at previous court hearings.
The matter exposed a series of issues, with Lord Justice Fraser calling it a ‘troubling case’.
So far the Northants force has paid out more than £250,000 dealing with the matter and costs could rise even further as there are ongoing proceedings.
Three Northants staff who were involved in the handling of the case were referred to police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in November and the IOPC has said the staff have now been told they are being criminally investigated.
NN Journal understands chief constable Balhatchet is not the senior officer under investigation.
An IOPC spokesperson said:
“We started an investigation after receiving a voluntary conduct referral from Northamptonshire Police on 19 November 2025 in relation to two police staff members and one senior police officer.
“The referral related to their engagement with the courts over a legal matter and subsequent statements provided as evidence during the proceedings.
“All three have now been served notices that we are investigating them for potential breaches of police professional standards.
“They will be investigated for potential gross misconduct and have also been notified they will be investigated criminally for allegedly perverting the course of justice. This does not necessarily mean disciplinary or criminal proceedings will follow. Our enquiries continue.”
If the IOPC finds there is grounds for misconduct, the matter will be referred back to Northants Police who will carry out disciplinary hearings. Any criminal findings would be handed over to the Crown Prosecution Service.
A spokesperson for Northants Police said:
“We note the statement from the IOPC and we will continue to work with them on this. However, we are unable to comment further at this time as it remains a live investigation on their part.”
After the contempt of court judgement, the police, fire and crime commissioner Danielle Stone, said she would carry out a review into what happened.
A spokesperson for her office said:
“The review is underway. We are working with the Independent Office for Police Conduct to ensure that the review does not compromise their investigations and will publish the Terms of Reference shortly when we have resolved this.
“Meanwhile work is well underway on the remedial actions which the Force is taking, which will be scrutinised by our independent reviewer when complete.
“The review will be published and shared with the media when complete, and it will also be shared with the Police, Fire and Crime Panel.”
In other news
The leader of North Northamptonshire Council saw off a leadership challenge at a Reform UK party meeting last night.
After being told he would not be backed to remain as deputy leader, cllr Eddie McDonald ran against NNC leader Martin Griffiths at the Reform group’s annual meeting.
He was comprehensively defeated by Griffiths, who is likely to remain leader when the wider council has a vote in May.
This is the first public dispute of the group, which has been running NNC since last May.