Former Tempura boss resigns amid scandal

| 18/07/2011

(CNS): Scotland Yard's Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates, the officer who originally had overall control of Operation Tempura in the Cayman Islands, has resigned — the latest casualty of the widening the phone-hacking scandal involving Rupert Murdoch's News International, the BBC isreporting. Yates has been widely criticised for deciding not to reopen the Metropolitan Police's hacking inquiry following a review of new evidence in 2009. He had had also been in charge of checking out former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis, before he was given a contract to provide communications advice by the Metropolitan Police. 

Yates was given categorical assurances from Wallis that nothing would emerge that would embarrass either of them or the Met Commissioner, the BBC says. Yates's decison to quit comes after Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson resigned on Sunday.

An investigation by Scotland Yard officers into corruption within the RCIPS and the local Cayman islands judiciary, called Operation Tempura, lasted more than two years and is estimated to have cost the Cayman purse in excess of $10 million, but accomplished nothing. The special investigation was headed by Martin Bridger in the Cayman islands but was overseen by John Yates, who visited the islands several times in connection with Tempura.

Operation Tempura was initiated to investigate an alleged corrupt relationship beween newspaper owner Desmond Seales and Deputy Police Commissioner Antony Ennis. The investigating officers found no such relationship existed.

Read Viewpoint on Operation Tempura.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Where de ten million nah?

  2. Anonymous says:

    As the British say. Payback is sweet when it comes!!!!  LOL

  3. Anonymous says:

    IRONIC –

    The corrupt investigating the corrupt and the British, particualrly the FCO think they are so righteous and correct about everything. How the mighty have fallen.

    You have to laugh because it is comical.

  4. Jack N Meoph says:

    All these years I was calling it MrKarma – in fact, she's a bitch, right John-boy??!!!

    Oops, crackling on my cell, think I am being tapped…

  5. Dennie Warren Jr. says:

    Oh no, will they now be giving him a position at the FCO?  Nooooo!!!!

    • John Evans says:

      An interesting thought but unlikely.

      I bet the FCO are right now looking at how to dump the whole Tempura/Cealt fiasco in Yates' lap and step quickly away from it.

      Look at what they just did to Bridger!

      Yates' conduct of the Cayman investigation allegedly put the careers of a number of fairly senior civil servants on hold so the sooner the FCO can shift the blame the happier they will be.

      And there is definitely more on Yates/Bridger/Polaine and Tempura/Cealt in the pipeline. I'm just waiting for the documentation to be released.

      In fact Yates' departure could clear up some of the unanswered questions, particularly those relating to how contracts were awarded and appointments made, because he will no longer be in a position to control the content of replies to FOI requests and enquiries from MPs.

  6. Anonymous says:

    What goes around ………

  7. Anonymous says:

    I'm from the UK and married to a Caymanian for longer than most of CNS's readers have been alive, and truth be told I've lost count of the number of times I've laughed out loud at the notion of Cayman actually learning anything from the UK. If anything the UK should send a delagation over here to learn from Caymanians about good governance and a whole bunch of other stuff based on good old Caymanian common sense. The UK, bless them, lurch from one calamity to another. You see how Caymanians got things up and running again so fast after Ivan – no drama, no fuss, just "get the job done". Talk about a case study in efficiency.

    • Anonymous says:

      What??????????? You are singularly deluded or just desperate to cling to your status. Get an education. Why was Cayman so good at repairing after Ivan? I was here and it was nothing to do with locals. Look at what happened after 18 days when Iron Duke was finally allowed to dock.

      Get a grip and remember your roots, turncoat.

      • Naya boy for George SS Hirst says:

        You try and go and sit down a few salt tablets and a tarp  Nothing to do with locals you must be talking about the looting. Iron Duke hahahaha let me quote you the exact statement "they were exhausted from Grenada" They did try something certain UK officials wanted to transfer our financial interest to London and the Caymanian business persons who convened a meeting at a G/Town law firm got nothing yet the host got a Queens award and high accolades isn't that how it always is here. Roots and turncoats you have not been here long enough or contributed that much to make such statements ya friggin Colonialist.

      • Anonymous says:

        ummm… sorry just reading the comments. but didn't the UK helped us after Ivan?  I don't recall that ever happening. I went through the category 5 hurricane and I can tell you, it was weeks after we saw one warship off George Town. U.S., Honduras, and Jamaica, helped us better than the UK.

      • Anonymous says:

        Wow! Thanks for your input. Actually I have no need to cling to my "status' or don't you understand that , my dear confused fellow?

      • Anonymous says:

        PS What the………………..???????????????????????? looks a lot better, actually. Best of British anyway, son.

      • Anonymous says:

        You were here?  I don't think so.  The recovery had everything to do with locals.

        The Iron Duke was here but, as they themselves admitted, what the Cayman Islands needed was "security" and they were not authorized to provide that.  They meant well but they actually did very little.

         

    • Anonymous says:

      Thank You!!!

  8. Anonymous says:

    How about we get our $10 million back now?

  9. Caymanian Boat Captain says:

    As the old saying goes, "Don't tell me to clean up my backyard (Cayman Islands) when yours (United kingdom) is so rampant with allegations of bribery, corruption and improper police investigations in the Met-Scotland Yard". I hope Martin Bridger and the rest of his "Sunshine Squad" will be next. It would be so pleasing to the people of the Cayman Islands to hear/see them dancing on "hot coals" now. An investigation needs to be conducted by another police force outside the Met as there will be obvious "cover-up's" to protect certain idividuals during this latest scandal. 

    I want my $10,000,000 CI dollars returned, that was so wastefully spent chasing ghosts in the dark during Operation Tempura!!  

       

  10. Anonymous says:

    How many phones where tapped in Cayman?

  11. B.B.L. Brown says:

    Hey!    Maybe we can get Mr. Yates a position with our government.  I'm sure they can find a place for him.   He should fit right in.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Good thing come to those who wait…Good Riddance!!

     

  13. Anonymous says:

    YEA, what goes around comes around it just takes time lol

  14. Knot S Smart says:

    Another one bites the dust!

  15. Libertarian says:

    sad

  16. Anonymous says:

    Life is so funny. As the saying goes. You should never throw stones if you live in a glass hous
    e.

  17. Tempura's Ghost says:

    Just like the hacking inquiry when it got too close to those at the very top the enquiry was shut and now it has now come back to haunt Mr Yates. What a pity? I wonder if those behind Tempura will ever face scrutiny. I read your view point on Tempura and i will say this in response, that those local officials assigned to "advise" and" guide" Tempura officers were in fact elements of sabotage who were acting  and dispatched at the behest a certain very concerned interest. I saw this with my own eyes at a little get together where one of these same "guides" who was involved in the investigation of one of the persons who was eventually charged behaving like a brother and quite cozy with the said person. Mr. Evans may think he knows about how tings run bout ya but he like many of us still have a lot to learn about the corrupt dynamics of Cayman. Their operation of sabotage unfortunately was very successful and corruption continues to plague these islands.

    • John Evans says:

      I ain't finished with Yates, Bridger, Polaine or those in CIG and the RCIPS who backed them.

      Watch this space Tempura's Ghost because this is just the start.

       

  18. Anonymous says:

    Da wa ya get!

  19. anonymously says:

    well… well…. well… look at what we have here… uk investigators of corruption, being investigated by the uk themselves… how interesting and providential  :))