Met chief quits with £80,000 pension to take up new £120,000 post

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alf Hitchcock, 49, is to retire from the Metropolitan Police, gaining an £80,000 pension, then immediately start work as deputy chief constable of a quango at an estimated £120,000 a year.

His new role will see him take charge of part of the National Policing Improvement Agency where he will "mentor" potential chief constables.

The senior officer's package, which will entitle him to another pension when he retires, will far exceed the pay of the officers he is mentoring.

Mr Hitchcock said it was a "one-off" job and told how he had been put off applying for promoted posts because of the pay. "Chief executives of councils usually earn far more than chief constables in charge of policing entire counties," he said. "I joined the Met six years ago because the challenges were more difficult. But, financially, because of the cost of living in London and moving my family, I would have been better off as a chief in a provincial force."

Mr Hitchcock, who joined the Met in 2003 after being with police in Lancashire since 1977, was appointed last summer by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to develop the Tackling Knives Action Programme. He refused to disclose the terms of his new post, but said: "The key motivation is that it is a new job, a one-off national role."

Officers can stay in the police and qualify to collect pay and pension if they retire from one of the Home Office forces and join a force or agency that falls under a different department.

Critics have labelled the practice of officers simultaneously collecting large pensions and salaries as the "gravy beat", which gave a "bad impression" of the police. Peter Smyth, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation which represents more than 30,000 officers, said the public would be "shocked" by the news. He said: "I'm not sure this is the best use of public money. Common sense says this isn't right."

It comes after thousands of officers have been forced to take second jobs to supplement their wages. Other officers who have retired and immediately gone into other policing roles include the chief constable of the British Transport Police, Ian Johnston, and his deputy Andy Trotter. They left Scotland Yard and joined the BTP, which is not under Home Office control, entitling them to the "double hat" windfall.