Police clear ACP Hackshaw, PCA still probing

JENSEN LA VENDE

WHILE the police may have ended their investigation into one of their own, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is not done yet.

A daily newspaper reported that Assistant Commissioner of Police Irwin Hackshaw had been cleared of any wrongdoing after he was alleged to have acquired over $2 million in suspicious transactions over a two-year period.

The investigation was said to have been done by ACP William Nurse.

Newsday contacted head of the PCA David West on the end of the case and was told that the PCA's independent investigation is still ongoing.

The PCA, at the end of the investigation, is expected to submit a file to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Sources within the DPP’s office said the police file was not sent for review before the police ended their investigations.

Police officers are forbidden, by departmental order, to seek advice from the DPP’s office without first submitting the file to either Police Commissioner Gary Griffith or head of the police legal unit Christian Chandler. The order says officers may liaise with the DPP's office but must seek approval from Griffith and/or Chandler before submitting completed files for recommendations on charges to be laid.

In March the Sunday Express published an article saying that police were probing Hackshaw in relation to suspicious banking transactions.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) sent Griffith a file about the alleged misconduct. Griffith passed it to the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB). Usually, files of such a nature are given to the Anti-Corruption Investigations Bureau (ACIB) and the Financial Intelligence Bureau (FIB), but Griffith said he opted to give it to the PSB, the internal police department responsible for investigating police officers.

Information on the investigation was later leaked to the Sunday Express. The media house was then searched by Financial Intelligence Bureau officers, who alleged that the media house broke the law in publishing Hackshaw’s financial records in relation to the ongoing investigation. Hackshaw is now suing the Express.