Pair’s fury at police ‘error’

Jul 1 2008 By Gurdip Thandi

AN ANGRY couple who claim to have been the victims of a hate campaign by a policeman neighbour say they feel they have been “let down by the system” after he escaped prosecution.

Susan and Roger Hinshelwood complained to Staffordshire Police of years of harassment at the hands of officer DC Robin Place, who moved in next door to the couple’s Burntwood bungalow around ten years ago.

But the case never made it to court following an administrative error by Staffordshire Police, which meant they missed the six-month deadline for lodging the case.

The Hinshelwoods claimed he had sent them various brochures including subscriptions for explicit sex magazines, left animal excrement in their garden, and hammered nails through a fence and into their bench after they had complained in 2001 about trees DC Place had planted in his garden, which blocked their light.

The trees were eventually taken down after the couple complained to the council in 2001 but they were replaced with a huge shed which had a door facing the Hinshelwood’s dining room window.

They also filmed him tampering with a CCTV camera they had set up.

DC Place, a fraud squad officer originally based at Lichfield and now working at Cannock, avoided prosecution because officers who arrested him failed to act within a six month time limit to get the case to court.

Had he been convicted, he could have been sacked and left with a criminal record.

At an internal tribunal, married father-of-two DC Place, aged 40, admitted sending the couple funeral and holiday brochures, estate agents pamphlets and an anonymous e-mail to Mr Hinshelwood’s work regarding the issue with the trees.

There was insufficient evidence to prove he had sent the sex magazines and he was fined £750 and allowed to keep his job.

Today, mum-of-four Mrs Hinshelwood, aged 61, told the Mail: “This started off as a neighbour dispute but when he realised we were not backing down, it got more serious.

“When we were told the case was not going to court we felt angry, upset and could not believe it had happened.

“Staffordshire Police admitted it was their mistake but that does not help us and it leaves a really bad taste in our mouths.

“We were not able to get up in court and tell everyone what we have gone through and we do feel very let down.

“He really has been the neighbour from hell and a disgrace to the police force. But this stinks.”

Chief Insp Kenneth Unwin, who investigated, wrote to the couple admitted making a “mistake” but denied that the error was “in any way intended to protect Robin Place”.

DC Place said: “This is a closed issue for me. It’s in the past.”

A spokesman for Staffordshire Police said: “The investigating officer made a genuine mistake.”