A FOUR-YEAR corruption investigation into a top-ranking police officer collapsed yesterday, leaving taxpayers with a bill of up to £5 million.

Superintendent Ali Dizaei, who was tipped to become a chief constable, was the focus of the biggest investigation of a policeman, involving 100 officers, MI5, the Inland Revenue and police in the United States and Canada. He was trailed, bugged and filmed.

The flamboyant officer had been accused of being a drugtaker, a threat to national security and a friend of drug traffickers and money launderers. But the marathon inquiry ended in ignominy for the Metropolitan Police when the only remaining actual charge, fiddling £270 mileage expenses, was dropped.

Dr Dizaei, who has a PhD in race relations, said afterwards: “I would not like this episode to be seen as a poor reflection on the Metropolitan Police Service nor the Crown Prosecution Service, but rather as an indictment on a number of individuals in those two organisation who have set out on a personal crusade to try to destroy my life and my career.

“I find it astonishing and extraordinary that taxpayers’ hard-earned funds could be abused in this way.”

He said that when the claims were made he was left “in a state of shock. I thought some of the allegations were so bizarre that I thought they were funny.”

Last night the Metropolitan Police branch of the Black Police Association was reported to have threatened to boycott Scotland Yard’s drive to recruit more officers from ethnic minorities until an inquiry establishes who was to blame.

Dr Dizaei, 41, had been in charge of administration in Kensington, West London, but has been suspended on full pay for more than two years.

The investigation cost £2.2 million, the bill for two court cases is estimated at £1 million and Scotland Yard now faces a discrimination claim which could cost £2 million. Dr Dizaei, who earns £52,000, remains at home until police decide on any disciplinary charges.

His defence described the investigation as having “Orwellian proportions”. One undercover officer joined his gym hoping to entrap him over drugs. Police spent £15,000 renting a flat in Kensington as part of the officer’s cover story. Another detective was wired with a microphone to test Dr Dizaei on whether he knew a number of criminal suspects. US investigators were asked to help in a sting operation during a trip to California.

Surveillance teams followed Dr Dizaei for 91 days. Police recorded 3,500 telephone calls and monitored 250 hours of conversation. CCTV cameras watched him all over London. Police checked his claims to a married man’s allowance and even went to his dry cleaner to see if he got a discount.

Operation Helios began as a series of vague allegations made while Dr Dizaei was a middle-ranking officer in Thames Valley in November 1998 when a London officer said that an informant claimed that Dr Dizaei was taking drugs. Nothing came from the allegations.

Senior officers say concerns remained but they did not prevent Dr Dizaei from transferring to London. He also became vice-chairman of the Black Police Association.

In June 1999 senior officers were told of claims that Dr Dizaei was associating with a drugs dealer and had intervened to quash a speeding fine. He was also alleged to have supported the passport application of a man linked to drugs.

By the time Helios was over, Dr Dizaei had been served with 163 breaches of police regulations. Many allegations collapsed and others were dismissed by the CPS. Police investigated visits to the Iranian Embassy and believed that Dr Dizaei might have breached national security and could be working for the Iranian secret service. Officers looked at claims that he was linked to a group concocting an international fraud.

In September 2000, while Dr Dizaei was being watched, his BMW was vandalised near Kensington police station. Dr Dizaei claimed that the damage was a race attack by fellow officers. The surveillance team said that they had seen the car parked elsewhere.

In January 2001 Dr Dizaei was suspended and charged with perverting the course of justice. He was also charged with fiddling mileage payments. When the charges relating to the car came to court this year, Dr Dizaei said that he lied about his car being outside the station all day because he did not want his boss to know he attended a Black Police Association meeting. The jury cleared him in two hours.

Charges that Dr Dizaei had fiddled mileage expenses were dropped at the Old Bailey yesterday, two weeks before a second trial was due. The CPS had realised that it could probably claim that only £270 might have been fiddled.

It also admitted that Dr Dizaei’s records were muddled: there were many journeys for which he had made no claim and he did not claim subsistence allowances. He may even have been owed £4,000.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen House, defending the investigation, said: “This was not about scratches on a car and fiddling expenses, but about the integrity and trust of an extremely senior police officer.”

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