SPSA Chief Mulhern settles employment battle with £90k deal

David Mulhern, Chief Executive of the Scottish Police Services Authority, has stepped down from his post after settling a protracted legal battle with his employers, the SPSA. The out of court settlement is widely reported by media to be in the order of £90,000.

The SPSA took over fingerprint & other services from the former SCRO which itself ended up on the scrapheap after their disastrous misidentification of fingerprints at a murder scene which in turn led to the Shirley McKie fingerprint scandal. However the SPSA has never been far from controversy & headlines reporting anomalies in its supposedly ‘new broom’ role to evidence handling for the Crown …

The Herald reports :

Police chief ends legal battle over job with £90,000 deal

LUCY ADAMS, Chief Reporter April 10 2009

One of Scotland's most senior police figures has received a £90,000 out-of-court settlement and has stood down from his post after months of legal wrangling.

David Mulhern, chief executive of the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA), took the body to court in December last year to prevent them from taking disciplinary action against him on 37 different "extremely serious" complaints as well as "significant issues of concern".

The move comes as Graeme Pearson, former head of Scotland's leading crime fighting agency, described the establishment of SPSA as "farcical" and blamed the civil servants for a series of "fudges" and chief constables for their quiet "acquiescence".

In December, Mr Mulhern was granted an interim interdict blocking the hearing, but that was overturned by a judge at Glasgow Sheriff Court on January 9.

The case was referred to the Court of Session after Mr Mulhern appealed the decision later that month.

In January Mr Mulhern was suspended over "other allegations", details of which the SPSA would not specify.

The Court of Session appeal, due to begin on April 22, has now been dropped as part of the agreement, in which Mr Mulhern will dismiss all outstanding court actions against the SPSA.

The authority yesterday said the settlement was in the best interests of the organisation as the "relationship of trust" between Mr Mulhern and the authority's board had broken down.

George Kay, vice convener of the SPSA board, said: "I believe the agreement we have reached is in the best long-term interests of SPSA, and will allow the organisation to quickly enter a new phase of development with fresh leadership at an executive level."