SOME police officers are earning up to £100,000 a year, triple their basic salary, by putting in thousands of hours in overtime.

Figures obtained by The Times show that some constables in the Metropolitan Police work on average more than 36 hours a week in addition to their normal duties to cope with an increasing workload.

The leading 20 earners among the Met’s constables and sergeants took home £900,000 in overtime in the last financial year.

The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, will alarm London police regulators and reformers within Scotland Yard who are examining wideranging changes in the Met’s operations.

The top ten earning constables are on a basic wage of £31,092, and the sergeants on £34,994, but even the tenth- highest overtime earner took home more than £80,000. A superintendent’s basic pay is £66,139. Overtime has been phased out for all ranks above sergeant.

In 2004-05, one constable received £55,960 in overtime, making his final earnings £99,317. The average overtime payment for a uniformed constable is £4,000 a year, for 200 extra hours. Dectective constables can earn double that.

The top-earning sergeant last year was paid £62,741 in overtime, bringing his total to £109,643, including allowances of £11,908 — almost as much as the Prime Minister, who earns £121,437, and more than the £104,000 paid to a deputy assistant commissioner. On average, sergeants earned £5,000 in overtime.

Most of those who earn thousands in overtime will be members of Special Branch and close protection teams who spend long hours, often abroad, with their “principals”.

In its freedom of information response, the Met says: “These roles, by their very nature, require officers to work long hours.”

Last night, the Conservatives urged the Government to invest in more police to lighten the load on existing officers at a time when the fight against terrorism is costing the London force £500,000 a day.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “With rising crime, and the threat of terrorism putting ever more pressure on the police, it is not surprising that officers have to work longer hours. If we really want to get a grip on crime, the Government must invest in more officers.”

Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: “The fact that these policemen are working so much overtime clearly shows the need for more officers on the beat. If the Government scrapped the massively expensive ID card scheme and used the money to employ more police officers, our streets would be safer and we would avoid such a big overtime bill.”

The constables in the list obtained by The Times are paid £14.90 an hour, sergeants £16.75 an hour. The basic rate of overtime rate is time and a quarter but can rise to double pay.

Even on the maximum, a constable would have to work 36 hours a week overtime to earn £55,960 in overtime. They do this by working on days off and during annual leave.

The amount of extra hours that officers put in is also causing concern about their ability to work properly and safely.

Ann Cryer, Labour MP for Keighley and member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “I just don’t think it’s a good idea for people to work double their normal hours. In as important a role as protection you need people to be alert and well. If people are putting their health at risk, in turn they are putting at risk the job they are trying to do.”

The Metropolitan Police Authority is so concerned at the extra hours that officers work that it has asked Scotland Yard to provide a monthly total of overtime.

Reshard Auladin, a member of the authority’s finance committee, said: “We have been concerned about the overall bill for some time and about how to reduce it.”

He said that members wanted more staff employed to reduce the burden on individual officers. Cutting the overtime bill would allow them to do this.

A force-wide review is under way which could introduce wideranging changes.

In the 1990s, Sir Paul Condon tried to end the practice where officers could remain in posts for years on end, earning large amounts of overtime, introducing limited tenure so that officers had to move posts.

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