Blitz Bureau
LONDON: Britain’s Minister of State for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention had her purse stolen at a meeting of senior police officers on September 10 when she spoke about the growing problem of theft and shoplifting, a government official said on September 12.
Diana Johnson attended the Police Superintendents’ Association in central England where a senior officer told her in a speech that the criminal justice system was broken.
The government official said Johnson had her belongings stolen at the conference, but no security risk had been identified. In her speech, Johnson said Britain had been “gripped by an epidemic of anti-social behaviour, theft and shoplifting”. The Home Office, or Interior Ministry, declined to comment. The Warwickshire Police said it was investigating a report of a theft of a purse at the hotel where the conference took place.
The police said it had arrested a 56-year-old man in connection with the theft of a purse at the four-star hotel outside Kenilworth in the Midlands where the policing conference was held. The man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and has been released on bail.
