Met deputy criticises £150,000-a-week waste of officers' time

The Met wastes as much as £150,000 a week sending more than 1,300 officers to court - most of whom never end up giving evidence, the force's deputy commissioner has said.

Tim Godwin, who is also the ACPO lead on criminal justice, said the criminal justice system was 'out of date' and that the amount of money forces waste on the 'stupid' national crime recording standard was 'bizarre'.

Mr Godwin told delegates at the ACPO/Association of Police Authorities conference in Manchester that a recent study by the Met had found that 1,389 police officers had gone to court over a five-day period. However only 39 per cent of these were actually called to give evidence.

He used this study to call for greater use of virtual courts – which allow cases to be heard from police stations.