The Sweeney: Corruption, Greed and Villainy: The Rise and Fall of the Flying Squad

By Neil Root

In 1972, Sir Robert Mark was appointed Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police by Home Secretary James Callaghan with the orders to clean up the force. Mark famously said when appointed that a good police force catches more criminals than it employs. After a fraught internal investigation, three separate trials in 1977 would lead to the imprisonment of Commander Kenneth Drury, the Head of the Flying Squad, for eight years on five counts of corruption in public office; Commander Wally Virgo, who was later cleared on appeal; and Chief Superintendent Wicked Bill Moody, Head of the Obscene Publications Squad, for twelve years, along with another Chief Inspector and five Inspectors. They are still the highest ranking British policemen ever convicted of corruption, collectively being sentenced to ninety-six years in prison in total. Since 1919, the Flying Squad had become internationally famous as the heavy mob which took on the toughest criminals, but bent officers were soon on the take and taking a drink, and very large ones, from the very criminals they were supposed to be pursuing. This is the real detailed story of the rise and fall of the Flying Squad, and the links to other elite Scotland Yard units, with new and explosive revelations. It shows how the legendary TV series The Sweeney told only part of the story.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1780576404
• ISBN13: 9781780576404
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
• Length: 272 Pages