Man who sent 82 letters of complaint in 17 years gets final brush-off

A ONE-MAN campaign against Scotland's largest police force, stretching back more than 17 years and including 82 letters of complaint and several failed legal bids, has finally been brought to an end.

The Police Complaints Commissioner (PCC) for Scotland, an independent watchdog, has taken the unusual step of instructing the Strathclyde force to disregard any new complaints from Eddie Cairns.

Mr Cairns, 59, was a management accountant at Scottish Enterprise when he made allegations of fraud against co-workers in 1993. Strathclyde Police investigated and handed a report to the procurator fiscal's office, which found insufficient evidence to bring a case to court.

However, Mr Cairns refused to let it drop and accused the force of failing to investigate properly.

In the years the followed, he made a total of 12 complaints against the force, including that officers intimidated him, that he was asked to leave a police station, that officers came to his house unannounced, and that they falsely accused him of putting staff at a supermarket in a state of fear and alarm.

An investigation by complaints commissioner John McNeil has found in favour of Strathclyde Police. His only criticism of the force was that it failed to respond to a complaint that a detective sergeant refused to spell his name to Mr Cairns.

He also said that, because of the "substantial amount of resources" police had spent dealing with him, they should no longer consider or respond to his complaints. Mr McNeil said: "I did not make this recommendation lightly. As a former human rights commissioner, I am, perhaps more than most, an ardent supporter of protecting the rights of individuals. However, it was time to draw a line.

"Substantial resources had been directed towards trying to understand and resolve the various complaints over an extended period of time.

"Everyone has the right to have a complaint considered, but I am also mindful that there will be occasions where resolution will not be possible, no matter how long the correspondence continues. This was one such occasion."

Mr Cairns responded in an open letter on his blog, "My experiences of Scottish justice especially in relation to fraud in Scottish Enterprise".

He wrote: "Your report contains significant falsehoods, evidence of unfair treatment and misleading statements in breach of my rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Data Protection Act 1998.

POLICE ACCUSED

Eddie Cairns' complaints against Strathclyde Police:

• They did not conduct an independent investigation.

• An officer from another force should have investigated allegations against Strathclyde.

• Police colluded with his former employer by staying silent about false statements.

• Police officers would not accept his complaints.

• Police intimidated him.

• He was asked to leave a police station.

• Police did not investigate an allegation of assault.

• He was falsely accused of putting supermarket staff in a state of fear.

• Police attended his home unannounced.

• Police documents contain defamatory statements.

• Police took ten months to respond to letters.

• The letters contained lies."I regard your recommendation to Strathclyde Police that they no longer consider or respond to any directly related complaint from me as completely unjustified."

Mr Cairns has also been declared a "vexatious litigant" under the Vexatious Actions (Scotland) Act 1898, which applies to people who "habitually and persistently instituted vexatious legal proceedings".

Strathclyde Police was unable to say yesterday how much time and money had been devoted to dealing with him.

Chief Superintendent John Pollock said: "The decision to restrict this member of the public's access to the complaints process was taken reluctantly and was based on the need to concentrate scarce police resources to the investigation to bona fide complaints. We welcome the PCC's findings."