Police chief on theft charge

A senior police officer was yesterday charged in connection with an alleged expenses fraud.

Chief Superintendent Colin Macdonald, 50, of the West Midlands force, is due to appear before magistrates in Birmingham on 24 July charged on a number of counts of theft and deception.

He was suspended from his job at the city's Queens Road police station in November last year pending an investigation into alleged expenses irregularities. He was arrested and charged yesterday.