Police dedicate 18 officers to Fred Goodwin vandalism inquiry

THE full extent of the police operation around the vandal attack on former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin's Edinburgh home can be revealed today.

The Evening News has discovered a total of 18 officers, including five detectives, forensic specialists and a police dog handler, were all drafted in after windows were smashed at Sir Fred's multi-million pound home in the Grange.

Despite spending a total of 75 hours on the case, the identity of the attacker who smashed three windows and damaged Sir Fred's Mercedes S600 remains a mystery.

The police operation is in stark contrast to the response less high-profile Edinburgh residents can expect to receive to a report of vandalism on their property. Residents reported 10,147 cases between April last year and March, and only 22 per cent of these were solved.

Detectives today defended the operation, saying the security alarm which sounded at the former bank boss's villa meant officers were investigating a potential threat to Sir Fred's safety.

A spokesman said: "Police were alerted to the activation of a security alarm at a residential property in the Grange on Wednesday, 25 March and officers responded to investigate any potential threat to personal safety.

"When it was confirmed that there was no immediate risk to any individual, the response was scaled down.

"All personal attack alarms or similar alarms calls are treated as a priority, irrespective of the address.

"Calls are responded to according to priority with ongoing crimes or threats to personal safety being given a higher priority than those where a crime has already taken place and the accused is no longer in the vicinity."

The force released a breakdown of the officers involved with the case to the Evening News under freedom of information laws, although it was unable to place an overall cost on the inquiry.

Four uniformed officers carried out an initial search of streets when they arrived minutes after the alarm sounded at 4.35am, spending four hours looking for suspects.

A police dog and his handler also arrived to conduct an hour-long search while two uniformed constables were posted outside Sir Fred's home for 16 hours.

A sergeant spent an hour supervising the scene while a pair of "SOCOs" arrived to examine the address for forensic evidence over two hours. Two constables carried out a total of 12 hours of door-to-door inquiries, co-ordinated by a sergeant for two hours.

The vandal attack was assigned to a pair of detective constables who spent a total of 16 hours on their inquiries. The overall inquiry was managed by a detective inspector from CID for six hours.

Two e-mails from a group claiming responsibility for the attack had been sent to the Evening News, branding all bank bosses "criminals" and threatening further action.

A detective inspector from the Force Intelligence Bureau spent four hours trying to source the e-mails, while a detective inspector from the High-Tech Crime Unit worked another hour on the job. Police continued to mount high-visibility patrols outside Sir Fred's home for days after the attack.

'Maybe it's because I don't live in a bigger house'
AS A customer service adviser for Standard Life, Janet Langlands, pictured, may not be on the same level as Sir Fred.

She too was a victim of vandalism just days after the attack on Sir Fred's house made international headlines.

Unlike the former RBS boss, the mother-of-one from Craigentinny did not get an instant police response. She said officers took eight hours to respond to her call after the windscreen of her Fiat Punto was smashed on 30 March. When a pair of officers finally arrived to take down her details, they stayed for 15 minutes and never called her back.

She added that two officers who dealt with her case were unaccompanied by white-suited scenes of crime officers (SOCOs) and CID were not called in to assist.

The 51-year-old said: "That's quite a difference with the response I got. Maybe it's because I didn't live in a bigger house."