Marcus Beale of West Midlands police left counter-terrorism documents in his car for five days

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A senior counter-terrorism police officer who had top-secret documents stolen from his car has been recommended for dismissal over the error by a disciplinary panel.

Marcus Beale, the assistant chief constable of West Midlands police, was found to have committed gross misconduct by leaving the material in a locked briefcase in the boot.

Beale, 54, is just weeks from retirement, but is now set to lose a £215,000 tax-free pension lump sum, the hearing in Birmingham heard.

The officer, praised as “one of the police’s finest leaders”, left the documents in the car boot for five days, during which he went to the pub, spent a weekend away in London with his wife, and went supermarket shopping. The documents were never supposed to leave police premises, the hearing was told.

Delivering the panel’s verdict, chair Corinna Ferguson said: “We have decided to recommend dismissal as the appropriate outcome. We consider this as the necessary sanction for what we regard as a serious breach of protocol.”

The final decision on Beale’s future now rests with the force’s chief constable, David Thompson, in a meeting scheduled to take place in the next few weeks.

Ferguson said it was “an extraordinary mystery” as to how the documents had been stolen, with no sign of forced entry, but added that it was not a matter for the panel to resolve.

Beale only discovered that the briefcase was missing when he stopped at Warwick services on 15 May 2017 while on the way to Oxford.

The case, containing four documents, included minutes from a high-level counter-terror meeting, counter-terrorism local profiles, details of regular organised crime and sensitive information about a high-profile investigation.

Fiona Barton QC, representing the force, said: “The impact could have been catastrophic. It is a matter of luck the documents do not appear to have seen the light of day.”

Beale, who headed West Midlands counter-terrorism unit, was prosecuted last year and admitted a breach of the Official Secret Acts at Westminster magistrates court in December, for which he was fined £3,500.

At his disciplinary hearing, his QC, John Beggs, urged the panel to recognise the “exceptional circumstances” of Beale’s case and said the incident had been “wholly and extremely out of character” .

The three-member panel have already been told that Beale will be retiring in April, come what may.

However, Barton said: “The documents should never have been in a locked briefcase and in an unattended car certainly not for a few minutes, let alone days.”