Eight members of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service have been subjected to disciplinary action as a result of findings in the Operation Tempura and Operation Cealt misconduct investigations, according to information released under the Cayman Islands Freedom of Information Law.
Responding to a private individual’s open records request about the probes, which began in the Cayman Islands in 2007 and off-shoots of which apparently are still continuing, the police service indicated that six RCIPS staff members had been dismissed or forced to retire as a result of the Tempura and Cealt investigations.
The exact questions asked as part of the open records request, made in relation to the two operations, were: “How many members of the RCIPS have been subject to disciplinary action?” To which the RCIPS answer was “eight”. Another question sought to determine “How many members of the RCIPS have been dismissed or forced to retire?” To which the RCIPS answered “six”.
The RCIPS did not specify in its response what specific allegations against staff members led to their discipline or dismissal.
Although it indicated that Operations Tempura and Cealt had both officially ended, the RCIPS response to the FOI request also indicated there was at least one allegation that “remains the subject of active investigation”. The nature of that probe was also not stated.
That’s still not the end of the issues raised by Operation Cealt, which began in 2008 as a spin off from the initial Operation Tempura misconduct and corruption investigation.
According to the open records release Operation Cealt involved “161 separate allegations”.
“All allegations were fully recorded and investigated,” the RCIPS responses indicated. “In a number of cases, the allegations were evaluated and found to be of ‘single strand’ or historic nature, thereby making it difficult to find corroboration to support them.
“A significant number of the allegations have been ‘pended’ awaiting further intelligence/evidence becoming available in order to reopen them as appropriate. At the conclusion of operation Cealt a number of these ‘pended’ allegations were passed to the newly formed RCIPS Anti-Corruption Unit for further action, if and when deemed to be appropriate.”
The earlier probe, Operation Tempura, began in September 2007 following claims that a former local newspaper publisher, Desmond Seales of Cayman Net News, and Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Ennis had improperly shared information that could have placed police operations in jeopardy and officers’ lives in danger. Investigators at the time said those claims were quickly disproved and began investigating an alleged ‘break-in’ at the newspaper’s offices in George Town.
The investigation eventually ended in criminal charges against a former deputy police commissioner and a former Cayman Islands lawmaker, both of whom were cleared following criminal trials.
According to the RCIPS response to the private individual’s FOI request, no other criminal charges were filed related to either the Tempura or Cealt investigations.
However, police could not say whether other complaints were made to investigators working on the initial Operation Tempura probe.
“Operation Tempura was a London Metropolitan Police investigation, and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service [does] not have access to the complete information necessary to provide any accurate detail of the number of complaints received under its terms,” the response indicated.
The FOI response directly contradicts a July 2010 statement by Deputy Governor Donovan Ebanks.
“Operation Tempura was initially under the operational control of the governor of the Cayman Islands,” Mr. Ebanks’ statement indicated. “In early 2009, operational control was transferred to the commissioner of police.”
Earlier information reported by the Caymanian Compass and the Observer on Sunday newspapers has revealed that certain hiring decisions related to the Operation Tempura and Cealt investigations were made directly by top Scotland Yard officials, including one by former UK Met Assistant Commissioner John Yates. Mr. Ebanks had referred to Mr. Yates as an ‘adviser’ and a provider of ‘ongoing counsel’ in previous statements about Operation Tempura to the auditor general’s office.
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John Evans…
Is this your handiwork, or should we credit it to another ?
In any event, in an off-hand manner of speaking, certain information has been revealed here that presents some results of the corruption investigations of Operations Tempura and Cealt, despite the details of names, specific complaints and specific offenses/causes for dismissal not revealed.
What I cannot deduce from this information is whether the term ‘disciplinary action’ includes dismissal; if it doesn’t, then the total number of police officers against which the RCIPS has been forced to take action, based on these two investigations, is fourteen (14).
Another unrevealed and highly important fact is whether any of these offenses constituted criminal offenses that warranted prosecution in a court of law, rather than mere RCIPS disciplinary action.
Without taking into account the original scandal for which Operation Tempura was started, with 14 police officers being found quilty of corruption offense, no one can honestly say now that these investigations were not warranted, nor that any corruption did not exist within the ranks of the RCIPS, that warranted investigation and punishment.
What I have always known to be a fact is that some such corruption had always been known by, covered up, condoned and even committed on behalf of others higher up in authority and power in Cayman by members of the RCIPS; this has been no secret to many local Caymanians, for many years.
What I have always believed also, is that Operation Tempura was more sabotaged by these same local elements rather than turned into the expensive fiasco that it was claimed to be by certain elements that did not want the results of this investigation to come to light and did everything to undermine and compromise its purpose.
Was it worth the CI 10million and still counting ?
For the lives that have been destroyed and disrupted in the Cayman Islands because of this now revealed corruption, no amount of money can ever compensate some of these individuals and firing and disciplining the involved police officers is a hollow victory for their victims, who will neither receive personal compensation or have their wrongs acknowledged.
For some of them, this revelation will not provide closure.
There are times in life that one’s principles are worth more than life itself and death preferable to dishonour.
It is a pity that Cayman will never know the names of its courageous citizens who took a stand in their own defense when facing the odds of the power of their abusers…
And won.
Editor’s note: Contributor writes ‘What I cannot deduce from this information is whether the term ‘disciplinary action’ includes dismissal; if it doesn’t, then the total number of police officers against which the RCIPS has been forced to take action, based on these two investigations, is fourteen (14).’
We asked these questions to the RCIPS and their response did not clarify this issue. We have filed a separate FOI request to seek more information.
Firery, a year ago you posted on this site –
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I have a personal and vested interest in seeing these complaints that were investigated by Martin Bridger and his team come to light, as many other people in the Cayman Islands do.
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Presumably, because you were one of the complainants.
I also have vested interest. RCIPS now claim that the details of the Tempura allegations, including two that I made based on solid information with named sources, were deemed to be the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). In other words the records, which the people of the Cayman Islands paid so much money for, have conveniently disappeared. I have queried this.
The problem with the RCIPS reply is that, according to the Met themselves, Tempura was never an actual MPS operation.
In fact from May 2008 onwards Tempura, as it moved into Phase II or Operation Cealt, was progressively privatised until in June 2008 all the officers were apparently employed by two consultancy companies – neither registered in the Cayman Islands – and under the general control of the Portfolio of Internal External Affairs until RCIPS took over in February 2009. In fact two of the officers involved appear (and this is currently being investigated) to have been somehow temporarily released from their MPS contracts to earn substantial fees as part of the SIO’s new team.
During this period the SIO justified the continuation of the investigation, and the generous payments being made to him and his colleagues, by claiming to MLAs that RCIPS officers were involved in drug dealing and murder – charges he clearly never followed up.
Quite what the heck is going on here still has to be determined but claiming the Tempura/Cealt was some kind of success is nonsense. In fact the material that is being disclosed raises more questions than it answers.
Not so long ago you were trying to get me to drop this line of investigation, it’s now clear why that might been.
Right now any allegations that there was local sabotage of any corruption investigation pales to insignificance compared with the moves made to cover up exactly what had gone on on when Dan Duguay tried to audit Operations Tempura and Cealt in 2009.
It’s my personal opinion that the material I now have shows that that the investigators, rather than the people they were investigating, were the real villains and that is currently being looked at very seriously by at least two organisations in the UK.
judgdging from this number,and the time these officres left the Service, it seems that some officers who had one or two years to their retirement and were either encouraged to retire of forced to retire, were included in this number. It would be interesting to know if some officers who were given the incentive to retire or push to retire before their exact time of retirement , were being investigated without their knowledge and were sent packing not knowing that they were being investigated. I would call this blatant injustice and heavy-handedness by the scotland yard , Police Commissioner and other government Officers involved at the time. It is no doubt that since these investigations, certain new senior officers that came to these islands had made up their minds beforehand that the RCIPS was currupt even before any investigations were commenced. Were there people terminated from the RCIPS because of these preconcieve notions,without being given a chance to be heard? Its not a silly question. Some people don’t want to create a storm, or they are can be pushed,or by nature did not want to muddy the water because their services were contractual(foreigners) so they adopt the path of least resistance an left. If there were secret investigations which did not yield enough evidence against the particular officer(s) and if such investigations were not brought to the attention of the officers(eg.by an interview at the complaints Department) this is suspect and an injustice. Something would be very wrong here.We are supposed to be governed by democratic principles. a person supposed to know the charge against him/her and be able to reply to it.
Mr Islander, that’s a very valid point.
I know for a fact that a number of ex-pat officers and civilian specialists terminated their employment with RCIPS during Tempura/Cealt because, in the words of one of them, they didnt fancy the prospect of having to put up with a gang of ex-Met ******s trampling through the place like a herd of elephants.
I hear a number of local officers also moved out around the same time and for similar reasons. I guess you could call that constructive dismissal and it cost RCIPS some very useful people.
However, I suspect any retirements were held over until their due dates because strictly speaking you cannot retire someone early without honouring their full pension entitlement – to do so is dismissal. In fact in one notable case I am certain that’s what happened.
Apologies to all for the typos in my first comment. It was prepared on a netbook and my eyes cannot proof read on a 10 screen.
Editor’s note: http://www.compasscayman.com/caycompass/2009/03/03/Cops-flee-RCIPS/
John
I’ve never denied that I had a complaint being investigated; I’ve admitted that on this forum quite recently but I didn’t need this report to tell me that my complaint had already been dealt with, I was quite aware of that as far back as 2008, when I last worked in Cayman for any length of time.
Once I had made my complaint through the office of the Governor over an incident that took place in mid-2006, it was inevitable that it would be dealt with properly, once an independent corruption investigation was begun, Tempura or whatever else they wished to call it.
The matter in which you were involved did not take place until more than a year after this.
My reasons for wanting to know that something was being done was because of the number of local complaints that went in to the investigating officers of Operation Tempura, some 70 of them.
The other matters of which you are concened, which is the question of the operation’s legality and conduct, while I am very aware of the situation, has never been my main concern.
Regardless of how some people might try to spin this, taking this report at face value, it would be reasonable to conclude that the disciplining and dismissal of these 14 police officers has come as a result of the investigative work done by the officers of Operation Tempura and Cealt that had to do with the 70 local complaints.
No one involved in the Desmond Seales scandal was found to have done anything wrong or were acquitted in court so these 14 cases of officer corruption could not have been connected to that scandal.
As far as I am concerned, if this is all the justice that these local complainants is going to get…
Then justice on their behalf has been done.
Firery, any reason you won’t give us any more information on your complaint and the outcome? I’m sure it would make interesting reading. Did it go to court? Is that why you are now living in the UK and posting under a pseudonym?
Talking of justice, doesn’t it bother you that the people of the Cayman Islands have paid out something like CI15 million already (and that bill is rising daily) for investigations that the RCIPS PSU could have easily conducted on their own?
I can tell you for a fact that the vast majority of the complaints (and I dispute your figure of 70) filed with Tempura were personal matters, nothing to do with RCIPS or any other police organisation – that came from one of the team along with some very racist comments about Caymanians in general. Whether this represents certain individuals trying to take advantage of the situation I do not know.
That the SIO tried to change the Tempura TOR (Terms of Reference) is not in dispute because complaints were received about non-RCIPS matters but the decision not to let him go down that road was apparently made by the then-Governor, whose judgment you appear to respect.
Do you have any solid evidence that Operations Tempura and Cealt did anything but line the pockets of a few ex-Met officers? If you do I’m sure the Compass would be very happy to publish it.
Right now this is what we have –
1.25 million in damages for false arrest. This arrest perpetrated by a lawyer not accredited in the Cayman Islands and a private consultant who swore out the warrants but hadn’t been a serving full-time police officer anywhere in the world since 2001. In fact that gentleman conveniently left Tempura/Cealt a week after the arrest.
At least 0.5 million in legal costs associated with that arrest.
Four UK-residents, two of them apparently (this is still to determined) serving Metropolitan Police officers at the time, paid more than CI600,000 over eight months while employed through a company not registered in either the UK or the Cayman Islands.
And the list goes on. Dan Duguay’s report only scratched the surface.
If you have any evidence to the contrary I am sure that the readers of the Compass would love to see it.
Talking of justice, doesn’t it bother you that the people of the Cayman Islands have paid out something like CI15 million already (and that bill is rising daily) for investigations that the RCIPS PSU could have easily conducted on their own?
John
You obviously don’t know how the then-called RCIPS Complaints and Disciplinary Dept. was operated back in the days before the major scandal in which you were involved, took place.
No one is saying that each and every one of those 70 complaints, which you were quite willing to acknowledge in some of your former posts, had merit but I can guarantee you that some of them did.
On the surface, my matter appeared minor;nothing more than a traffic offense but the circumstances and outcome turned into much more than that.
I have the evidence to prove, in at least that one case, the corruption that was present within the RCIPS and if Tempura’s investigative work provided evidence in at least some of the other cases reported to them, then as this report by Caycompass proves, Operation Tempura was not totally a waste of money, nor in vain.
These investigatins have always had two levels to it, one involving the higher echelons of authority and power, upon which sword Tempurs fell; and justice for the ordinary people of Cayman who felt that they had an independent source to which to make their complaints, where they felt that justice which they had no confidence would be done from within the RCIPS, would finally be afforded them.
Just having my matter investigated was justice enough for me and having the RCIPS know that I would move mountains before accepting meekly, the actions of its police officers, in my case.
I activated every single avenue and right afforded a tax-paying British citizen at the highest levels of the Foreign Commonwealth office, before Operation Tepmura was ever called into Cayman, to show the members of the RCIPS who abused my rights, that they were not untouchable when committing corrupt acts in uniform.
I have always sympathised with your quest for getting the full story out to the public, contrary to your beliefs.
And I continue to wish you luck in your ongoing quest, which I know will continue.
Just to confirm the RCIPS stated position on Operation Tempura.
When I queried their FOI response the reply I got reads –
Please be advised that it is my understanding that all requests for information regarding Operation TEMPURA should be referred to London Metropolitan Police who had conduct of the investigation.
In my opinion that reads like RCIPS are washing their hands of the whole fiasco.
I am filing an FOI request to the Met right now.
Firery, I’m sorry but you haven’t proved anything apart from the fact that you believe the Marl Road over hard evidence.
I asked for you to provide details but you have not and until you do your claims are nothing more than unsubstantiated rumours that are interfering with the real investigations. That, unfortunately, is what fouled up Operations Tempura and Cealt rather than local interference and is probably why the RCIPS do not want anything more to do with the former.
John
The information states…as a result of Operation Tempura and Cealt, 14 police officers of the RCIPS has had to be dismissed or disciplined because of proven corruption.
For the sake of the good citizens of the Cayman Islands, having 14 corrupt police officers removed at the cost of 15 million is money well spent; it would have been money well spent if it had been even ONE corrupt police officer removed from the system.
If you can show where this report says anything else, then I challenge you to prove it.
Its obvious that the information in this report is not to your liking but that is entirely your problem.
If it is closure that you are seeking on your own behalf, then you will have to take up your issues with the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard.
Obviously, the RCIPS in Cayman would like to have this matter behind them now and move on…