Detective denies credit card misuse

Published on Thu Jan 27 10:01:37 GMT 2011

A Scotland Yard detective accused of using a force credit card to pay for a weekend with his wife in a luxury hotel has denied any wrongdoing.

Detective Constable Christopher Fernley told a court he did not abuse the American Express charge card and that he had mistakenly claimed it as a police expense, thinking it was a hotel he had stayed at with colleagues.

As it was, he was on leave at the time he stayed at the Devonshire Arms Country House in the Yorkshire Dales while he and his wife attended a wedding party. Fernley charged £746.80 to the card, which was intended solely for police expenses incurred in the course of duty.

Giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court, he agreed it was a “particularly exclusive” hotel, but said he had not distinguished it from the places he stayed at for police business.

He also explained that, although he had not read documentation relating to the card when it was originally given to him, he believed it could be used for personal expenditure, as long as the money was later paid back.

Fernley said: “The hotel name is really similar to ones I’ve stayed in – Chesford Grange, Crewe Hall. In my mind I had paid back that money from the wedding in any case.”

Using a claim form, Fernley had said the £746.80 spent at the hotel over the August Bank Holiday in 2006 was payment for the accommodation of four officers, including himself.

He admitted that when discrepancies in his expense claims were later pointed out to him by a colleague, he realised there were “glaring mistakes” and offered to get his chequebook to rectify the situation.

Retired Detective Superintendent Gordon Green, who worked as Fernley’s manager for two years, told the court the defendant was “extremely trustworthy” and a competent member of staff.

Fernley, who dealt with extradition cases for the Specialist Crime Directorate, denies five counts of false accounting over transactions made on the card, including one for a French theme park. The trial was adjourned until Thursday.