Marcus Beale, who was in charge of counter-terrorism at West Midlands police, left papers in unmarked car for days

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A senior counter-terrorism officer has been fined after top-secret papers he left in his car were stolen.

Assistant chief constable Marcus Beale, who was the counter-terrorism lead for West Midlands police, left the documents in a locked case in the boot of the vehicle for four or five days in May while he went on holiday.

The papers, which included information about counter-terrorism intelligence and investigations, were then stolen from the unmarked police car.

Beale, 54, was fined £3,500 at Westminster magistrates court on Thursday after pleading guilty to the charge of failing to safeguard information under the Official Secrets Act.

The chief magistrate, Emma Arbuthnot, said: “It’s obviously incredibly dangerous and potentially very difficult indeed that these documents disappeared in the way that they did.

“There is no evidence of what happened to that briefcase. It may be it was an ordinary thief after your iPod who thought there was money in the briefcase, but we will never know, it has just disappeared.

“Nevertheless, that a police officer, let alone a very senior police officer, thought it was appropriate to leave a briefcase in the boot of a car which had those sorts of papers in it shows a lack of common sense which was worrying.”



She added: “No training is needed for a police officer to know that you should not be leaving anything of value in a locked car for five minutes, let alone five days.”

Beale has been suspended from duty and is due to face disciplinary proceedings.