Complaint Handling Reviews

The Complaints

The complaint in this case arose after the applicant made a report to Police Scotland about something which he believed to be fraud.  We have reviewed the handling of seven complaints, namely that: 

1. Police Scotland failed to investigate the applicant’s report of fraud properly;

2. not one person on the side of the criminality has been interviewed by Police Scotland;

3. despite an officer confirming that a crime had been committed during a conversation with the applicant and his solicitor, no report was submitted to COPFS;

4. Police Scotland should not have allocated the enquiry to a constable, as he did not have sufficient expertise;

5. the same constable told the applicant that he would come out and take a statement from him with another officer, but failed to do so;

6. the same constable should have contacted the applicant to obtain relevant information to be able to ask relevant third parties the correct questions, however, did not do so; and

7. the same constable contacted relevant third party organisations without the applicant’s authority 

Police Scotland’s Decision

Police Scotland upheld complaints 1 and 4, but did not uphold complaints 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7.   

Our Findings

We have found that Police Scotland handled complaints 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 of the applicant’s complaints to a reasonable standard but not so complaints 2 and 6.

We have made one recommendation to address the shortcomings in Police Scotland’s handling of the complaints.

Specifically, we have recommended that Police Scotland carry out further necessary and proportionate enquiries in relation to complaint 2, following which it should re-assess the complaint and provide the applicant with a further response.

Our recommendation should be implemented by Police Scotland within two months of the date of this report. 

Police Bodies : Police Scotland