They replaced his suspended sentence with one of 18 months in custody.Hinchcliffe’s initial lenient treatment contrasts with that of Kanta Singh, 41, a Birmingham mother of five. Between 1997 and 2002 prosecutions for benefit fraud rose from under 12,000 to nearly 27,000.Now, argues the Attorney General, “we need to match this approach in white-collar crime. Justice must be even-handed”.Lord Goldsmith had already referred the sentence of Stephen Hinchliffe, the former chairman of the Facia retail group, to the Court of Appeal for a second opinion.Hinchliffe, 53, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and admitted making £1.75m from the fraud.The Lord Justices accepted that Hinchcliffe’s crime merited immediate custody and that his original 15-month suspended sentence had been too lenient. Justice is supposed to be blind. Yet a fraudster in pinstripes with an important job in the City might expect a more lenient sentence than a single mother who cheats the benefit system

Justice is supposed to be blind. He said: “An innocent and highly respected man has had his life turned upside down due to the actions of a handful of officers.”Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stephen House, from the Met, said: “This was not about scratches on a car and fiddling expenses, but about the integrity and trust of an extremely senior police officer.”.

He was also disliked by some colleagues who were irritated by his penchant for designer clothes, sunglasses and cowboy boots.Richard Horwell, for the prosecution, said the investi-gation was justified because of the range and seriousness of the allegations involved.These had included allegations of threats to a former girlfriend, that Supt Dizaei bullied a PC to drop an investigation involving one of his friends, and that he accepted money from two sisters for helping them with their application to stay in the UK.Ravi Chand, president of the NBPA, called for a public inquiry into the case. He also criticised police for a campaign of “Orwellian proportions”. Investigators even sent Farsi-speaking officers to Los Angeles to see if they could catch their suspect in a drugs sting. He was seen by some as ambitious, too close to the Iranian community and too critical of the police, Mr Mansfield said. He also told his trial that he spent the evening before his car was damaged with three women – leading to speculation that the vehicle might have been scratched by a jealous lover.In hearings before the April trial, Michael Mansfield QC, for the defence, said in court that his client had been “hounded” and subjected to a “witch hunt”.

I find it both astonishing and extraordinary that taxpayers’ hard-earned funds could be abused in this way.”He had been tipped as a future chief constable, was on a Home Office working party on race and was legal adviser to the Black Police Association.The Met’s anti-corruption squad made Supt Dizaei a target after he reported that his black BMW had been vandalised on 6 September 2000 while parked close to his police station in Kensington and later implied that it may have been damaged by racist colleagues.Supt Dizaei admitted in court that he had lied and had left his car close to a gym to catch a Tube to a meeting of the Black Police Association. But rather, as an indictment on a number of individuals in those two organisations who have set out on a personal crusade to try to destroy my life and my career. Supt Dizaei has been supported by the National Black Police Association [NBPA] which estimated that the case cost £7m.After his acquittal yesterday Supt Dizaei said: “I was accused of very serious offences, being a threat to national security and corruption.”I would not like this episode to be seen as a poor reflection on the Metropolitan Police Service nor the Crown Prosecution Service. But Supt Dizaei is already taking the force to an employment tribunal, claiming racial discrimination.Police said yesterday that the inquiry cost £2.2m. The court case is thought to have cost a further £1m, and senior police sources have admitted that the Met might have to pay up to £2m in compensation. These were dropped yesterday after the court was told that he was owed up to £4,000 in unclaimed expenses, and the prosecution conceded there would be no realistic prospect of conviction.In April a trial did take place at the Old Bailey, but a jury took only two hours to clear the officer of perverting the course of justice and misconduct concerning a report of vandalism to his car.During the investigation, codenamed Helios, an eight-man surveillance team spent months bugging Supt Dizaei’s phone and keeping him under surveillance for 91 days in 2000. Scotland Yard was accused of organising a racist witch hunt yesterday after criminal proceedings against one of the country’s most senior Asian officers collapsed, leaving the Met with a bill of up to £7m and a badly damaged reputation.

She had had a hard enough life, and she met a terrible death But will the murder of Toni-Ann change anything?. Remember 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, stabbed to death with broken glass in November 2000 as he walked home from school in Peckham, south-east London? This, though, was even more calculated, saying something about life in Britain 2003. She was deliberately killed and we have to assume that it was because she was a witness to the crime.”The killing of a child provokes public outcry. He said: “We don’t want to investigate your murder, your child’s murder or that of a member of your family.”Norman Brennan, director of Crime Trust, said: “If we as a society truly care about the brutal assassination of a seven-year-old girl then those who know the identity of the killer must come forward.”Det Ch Supt Coles said: “All we know is four shots were heard and that there was a female scream We assume the female scream was young Toni-Ann. They recounted how Toni-Ann was brought out, gently cradled in the arms of an ambulanceman She was dead on arrival at hospital Ch Supt Bamber pleaded for help. They believe its members will help the police to bring them to book.Chief Superintendent Andrew Bamber, Brent’s borough commander, said: “This catastrophic incident will have a devastating effect on my community.” Neighbours certainly felt it.