THOUSANDS of pounds have been paid to senior police officers in Devon and Cornwall under a little-known bonus scheme, it has emerged.

The constabulary's top- ranking officers shared pay- outs totalling £20,000 in one year under the Chief Officers' Bonus Scheme, designed to reward them for performing well in personal development reviews and assessments by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary. Chief constables can receive a bonus of up to 15 per cent of their salaries, deputy chiefs up to 12.5 per cent and assistant chiefs 10 per cent. But the force would not reveal who had received the payments or why the officers qualified for them.

The scheme sparked controversy after a Freedom of Information Act request to all police authorities across the UK by a national newspaper.

The paper found that hundreds of thousands of pounds had been paid out nationwide during the a year under what it called a "secretive" bonus scheme.

Devon & Cornwall Constabulary said it would not be making a comment on the payments, and referred the Echo to the Association of Chief Police Officers, which it said was dealing with the matter.

An ACPO spokeswoman said: "It is a matter of record that ACPO president Sir Ken Jones has consistently and strongly criticised bonus payments to chief officers which position them as employees of an authority in the eyes of the public and our partners.

"Chiefs must only, in the final analysis, be answerable to the law and the law alone. This is a matter for individual chiefs and their authorities and not for ACPO, which is not a staff association."

Cllr John Smith, chairman of Devon & Cornwall Police Authority, said he knew little about the scheme and would have to check with the authority before commenting.

Greater Manchester Police chief constable Peter Fahy has called for an end to the scheme and said it should be replaced by a basic pay package.

He said: "Many chief constables profoundly disagreed with this because achieving the bonus might introduce an element of personal interest in how police policies were implemented. Also, whenever a target is achieved it is usually because many members of staff have been involved in the effort. No one does policing because of the money."

Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: "In principle, this isn't an issue when chief officers make a demonstrable difference to the force itself. But we do take issue when bonuses are awarded, based on the performance of other people, which further exacerbates the target-driven culture that we are trying to eradicate."