£12,000 compensation for West Midlands Police officer bitten by flea
A police officer bitten by a flea while on the beat has received a hefty £12,000 payout for their injuries.
West Midlands Police handed the officer the compensation for getting injured in the line of duty.
The pay-out has been dubbed ‘ludicrous’ by former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron as new figures reveal staff received more than £61,000 in compensation over the past year from the force.
Mr Farron said: “Our cops do an amazing job keeping us safe. Compensation should be paid for injuries at work but some of these claims seem to take the biscuit.
"It’s frankly ludicrous that taxpayers are footing the bill for when someone gets fleas on them. It’s utterly barmy and will harm public confidence in the police.”
A freedom of information request revealed a total of 14 police officers and other staff members claimed £61,131.30 between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017.
The police officer bitten by fleas was handed £12,127 in damages, while the force had to pay £4,185 in legal fees - bringing the total cost to the force to £16,312.
But four other police officers and a staff member were also handed cash payments in excess of £5,000 over the past year. An officer who tripped at work was handed a £5,000 payout, while another was given £6,000.
Defective equipment used while on the job resulted in a police office getting £7,274 compensation, the figures revealed.
Another officer injured due to ‘manual handling’ was given a £6,000 pay-out, while a staff member received £8,573.30 for injuring themselves in the same way.
West Midlands Police spokesman Hannah Fitzgerald said: “Compensation pay-outs are only made following the assessment of appropriate medical evidence by insurers and solicitors who then make a recommendation to the force as to what the pay-out should be.
“The force does have liability insurance in place which operates in respect of compensation claims made as a result of injury.”
The force paid out more than £320,000 in compensation to officers and staff injured on the job between 2015 and 2016, with one worker receiving £200,000 after being hurt because of ‘defective equipment or premises’.
