The fascinating real life story behind Line of Duty uncovered in documentary Bent Coppers: Crossing The Line ok.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ok.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
‘We knew who the crooked coppers were’: Inside the police unit that inspired Line of Duty
The detectives who led the Met s internal battle with corruption – and inspired the BBC s hit drama – are at the centre of a new documentary
10 April 2021 • 5:00pm
The BBC smash hit drama Line of Duty was influenced by the work of detectives such as John Simmonds
Credit: BBC/ World Productions/ Bohemia Films
On his first day in the job as a uniformed police officer for the Met in 1956, John Simmonds was offered a bribe. Then 19 and a cadet in Stoke Newington, north London, Simmonds was trying to make his first arrest – for a van theft – when the man offered him £20 to let him go. It was more than double his weekly salary, but Simmonds turned it down.
First published on Thu 8 Apr 2021 10.11 EDT
One of London’s most senior police officers, described by a colleague as “the greatest villain unhung”, was believed to be involved in major corruption in the 1970s but never prosecuted, according to a new documentary on police malpractice.
Former officers who exposed corruption at the time describe how they were threatened that they would end up in a “cement raincoat” if they informed on fellow officers and were shunned by colleagues when they did.
The fresh revelations come from half a dozen former officers from both the Metropolitan and City of London police forces, including one who has admitted receiving payments. The claims are made in a three-part documentary series about the widespread acceptance of bribes that led to the setting up of the anti-corruption unit A10, on which Line of Duty’s fictional AC-12 is based.