Thames Valley PCC Anthony Stansfeld 'acted outside jurisdiction'

Anthony Stansfeld has previously announced he will not be standing at the next PCC elections in May

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for the Thames Valley became involved in civil issues outside his jurisdiction, a panel has found.

A police and crime panel committee found Anthony Stansfeld should not have become involved in an insolvency matter after KPMG, one of the UK's largest consultancy firms, filed a complaint.

Mr Stansfeld said he disagreed with the panel's findings.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct will now be informed.

Thames Valley's police and crime panel (PCP) invited Mr Stansfeld to "explain his actions" after a complaint was made against him by David Standish and Blair Nimmo, from KPMG, and their legal advisers DLA Piper UK.

The details of the complaint were discussed in a confidential part of the meeting and have not been disclosed.

The panel upheld the complaint after finding the Conservative PCC "did not have the authority" of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, a national body of PCCs, to become involved in the matter.

Responding to the decision, Mr Stansfeld said the panel had reached a decision on a subject "they know little if anything about".

"The duties of the PCP is to hold the PCC to account, but also to support the PCC. This my panel has failed to do."

'Impossible for panel to investigate'

He said as the lead for fraud and cyber crime for the Association of PCCs, it was his duty to be concerned with the issue at hand after "thousands have been defrauded by banks, legal practices and accountants".

He cited the case of a former HBOS banker in Reading and five other financiers who were jailed for their part in a £245m loans scandal in 2017.

Mr Stansfeld said: "Senior parliamentarians from both houses of parliament and from both major political parties support me in this.

"A great many organisations and individuals have also written in to my PCP to support my efforts to see that victims of fraud are treated properly, fairly, and are recompensed."

He said it was "probably impossible" for the panel "to investigate complaints of this nature" and that "it should have the integrity to say so".

Mr Stansfeld was elected as Oxfordshire's first PCC in 2012 and was re-elected in 2016.

He previously announced he will not be standing at the next PCC elections in May.