Confidential Due Diligence Report Policeman ran £3rn bets scam in Buckingham Palace The Times (London) July 18, 2009 Saturday Copyright 2009 Times Newspapers Limited All Rights Reserved [ HYPERLINK "http://www.timesonline.co.uk" "_external" ] The Times (London) July 18, 2009 Saturday Edition 2; National Edition SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 14 LENGTH: 681 words HEADLINE: Policeman ran £3m bets scam at Buckingham Palace BYLINE: Adam Fresco BODY: Royal protection officers accused of being drunk while guarding the Queen, sitting on her throne and trading pornography on duty will not be disciplined. The allegations emerged during the trial of a policeman convicted yesterday of masterminding a £3 million betting scam at Buckingham Palace. Paul Page, 38, from Scotland Yard's 5014 Royal Protection Command, told Southwark Crown Court that officers regularly fell asleep at the Palace and at St James's Palace. He said they also played poker on duty and smuggled friends into garden parties or let them park in palace grounds while shopping in the West End. Page, 38, claimed that some officers routinely slept off hangovers in private palace rooms, handled firearms while drunk and sold steroids. Douglas Day, QC, prosecuting, dismissed the claims as "pie in the sky" and "nothing more than diversionary tactics" designed to cloud [Page's] "blatant dishonesty". Claims about members of the Royal Family were kept from the jury after the prosecution argued that they were irrelevant. But in a defence statement, Page referred to a series of alleged security breaches at Buckingham Palace. The Duke of York was said to have entertained women there, including Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the late Robert Maxwell. It was suggested that women were allowed in without going through security procedures and that police had sometimes to drive them home. Prince Andrew was also accused of ordering his protection officer to stand about 100 yards away, while he practised his golf