Police boss on £188k set to retire and return

A chief constable on a £188,656-a-year salary is set to retire for a month before being reappointed back to the job in order to protect his pension.

Simon Megicks, appointed as the Cambridgeshire Police chief last year, is due to resign on 29 September and then be reappointed on 28 October, subject to a police and crime panel's approval.

The move is legitimate under the national Retire and Rejoin Scheme and will prevent his pension pot reducing. It matures after 30 years' service but reduces for each consecutive year of additional service. By enforcing a break, it will be frozen at its maximum amount.

A report to the panel states the scheme "does not create any additional cost to the taxpayer".

If approved, a temporary chief constable - who has not been named - will be appointed while Megicks is off, before he returns on a contract until September 2030.

In a letter to Cambridgeshire's police and crime commissioner Darryl Preston, Megicks said he was "keen to have the minimal amount of time away from the role".

He added: "This is to support continuity of leadership and ongoing delivery of the strategic priorities for the force, aligned to your police and crime plan."

The most recent inspection of Cambridgeshire Police, covering 2023 to 2025, found "leadership and force management" required improvement.

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