THERE’S BEEN A MURDER!!…. WELL OK, A DONATION!

In our best Taggart voice, it’s maybe a tad dramatic but hey we wanted your attention to tell you that on the 7th February 2025, the Scottish Senior Investigating Officers Conference was held at Dunblane Hydro.

This was the first Senior Investigative Officers conference in a number of years, and was held on the 6th and 7th February.

The two-day conference brought together 200 delegates from across the SIO network, including key representation from our law enforcement partners throughout the UK. The conference saw a number of inputs from Police Scotland SIOs, and sponsors.

During the evening reception a charity raffle was held and the decision was made that the proceeds of which were to be kindly donated to the SPBF.

Our Chair, Ricky Wood, attended the event on behalf of the Charity to receive the cheque and this was presented by another fantastic fund raiser for the Charity and Police Scotland’s youngest Deputy Chief Constable, Anthony Green. The most senior in rank at the event in fact!! (technically ….).

Many of you will know DDC Green as our intrepid fund raiser from last year who toured almost every Police Station in Scotland raising funds on behalf of our Charity. DCC Green may be small in stature but he packs a punch when it comes to getting people to dig deep into their pockets to raise money for a good cause! As always he was accompanied by his trusted and loyal personal bodyguard, William the Enforcer (otherwise known as dad 😉)

Our picture shows the cheque for £1,240 being presented to our Chair by DCC Green in his High Vis jacket, along with ACC Steve Johnson, Major Crime, Public Protection & Local Crime; and DCS Paul Livingstone, Head of Major Crime.

DDC Green was also presented with a certificate of achievement on behalf of the SSIO Management acknowledging his outstanding work in supporting the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund.

Detective Sgt Judith Northin one of the conference organisation team stated-
“We appreciate the efforts of the SPBF who work tirelessly to provide assistance and support to Police Scotland officers, their families, and communities; and we hope that this contribution can go a little way towards helping this continue.”

On behalf of all at SPBF, we would like to thank DDC Green and all the officers and sponsors who attended the SSIO Conference and raised funds on our behalf.

IT’S A WRAP!

Another year is coming to a close, but not before Santa came bearing an early Christmas present for the charity!!

The Trustees met at Castlebrae for the Annual General Meeting in November as planned where the charities accountants were able to report a clean bill of health again for the charity in regards to its financial responsibilities and status in respect of OSCAR compliance.  The governing body that regulates charities in Scotland.

(Our Trustees in attendance at AGM)

We also were delighted to welcome Matt Hamilton, Secretary of the Retired Police Officers Association Scotland, Tayside Branch.

Matt attended to listen to the AGM report, but also kindly came to present a cheque on behalf of the members of the Tayside Branch of the RPOAS, who donated £2,000 to the SPBF.  This was very unexpected but much appreciated donation and the Trustees would like to thank Matt and the members of the Tayside Branch for their kindness.  We shall certainly put it to good use, and of course the charity continues to support our retired members and their families in times of need.  Thanks again Matt and all at Tayside.

Matt (without the Santa suit!) presenting the cheque to our Chair, Lynne Gray

If you would like to make a donation to the SPBF then simply click on the donate link in the menu and follow the easy to use instructions.  It really is as easy as that, and rest assured your donation will make a difference to our officers and support staff, who work to keep everyone safe 24/7, but sometimes need someone looking out for them too.  It is only through such kind donations SPBF can continue to make that happen.

On behalf of all the SPBF Trustees, our staff and of course our local volunteers in the three areas without whom we couldn’t operate, we wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

ANT’S 2025 CALENDAR NOW ON SALE!

Hey everyone!!! Our very own Special Constable Ant Green has now launched his calendar of his journey around all the Police Stations in Scotland.  It is now on sale, with all proceeds going to our charity.

Below is a link to Ant’s facebook page which has details on how you can go about ordering one of these fantastic calendars whilst raising money for a good cause.

Just click on the link HERE to be redirected to the page and lets make it a date !  Yes that was a feeble attempt at a calendar joke!!

 

KIND DONATION IN MEMORY OF MARION

Donation from the family of Marion Wheeler

Following the sad passing of Marion who was a cleaner for many years at Elgin Police Office, the family kindly chose the SPBF to be one of the benefactors from the collection at her funeral.  Her family told us that Marion loved working at the Elgin Office and is pictured here in the middle, holding her retirement card from the officers and staff.

Following her passing, Marion’s daughter was contacted by a former workmate who let her know that Marion was loved by everyone at the office and would be greatly missed.  She said, “Marion wasn’t just our cleaner she was a surrogate granny and marvellous baker too”.

We all at SPBF, would like to pass on our condolences to Marion’s family and thank them for their kind donation.  It is clear that Marion was very much seen as part of the Police family in Elgin and will be missed by all of her former colleagues.

LEWIS KILTS IT!

SPBF would just like to thank our kilted hero Lewis Sutcliffe for completing this years Edinburgh Kiltwalk and raising funds for our charity in the process.
Lewis went the extra mile (well 21 to be exact!) and not only walked the challenge but did it wearing a 25kg body armour vest.   To say it was a challenge is an understatement!  Here he is with his medal for completing the challenge.
He managed to raise a fantastic £120 for the charity and hopes to raise even more next year when he plans to do it again.  He even managed to meet and make friends with some fellow 999 workers whilst on the hoof!
A fantastic effort Lewis, thank you so much.  Your money will go to assisting our members in need and thank you for choosing us to raise funds for.

2024 AGM

The Scottish Police Benevolent Fund is pleased to announce that the 2024 Annual General Meeting will take place on Monday 11th November 2024. The meeting will take place at The Police Treatment Centre, Castlebrae, Auchterarder. This meeting is scheduled to commence at 10 a.m. All members are invited to attend.

SHOOTING THE BREEZE!

SPBF Would just like to wish Lewis Sutcliffe all the best for tomorrow, when he will be donning his kilt and taking to the road to take part in this years Kilt Walk for charity in Edinburgh on Sunday 15th September.

Whilst Lewis currently works in England, his heart is always in Scotland and returning home to do the Kilt Walk he wanted to raise some money on behalf of the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund.  We are very grateful to him (and all our fundraisers) for choosing us as his charity of choice.  Lewis will be sporting not only one of our T Shirts as he makes the walk but just to make it a little more challenging, will wear a 25kg vest on top!

If you see Lewis on the walk give him a big cheer and if you would like to support him then click on this link, where you can make a donation direct to his giving page.

Go Lewis, we are rooting for ya!!

TOP COP PLODDER

The SPBF would just like to thank our youngest Police recruit for putting in a humongous effort plodding the beat across Scotland to raise funds on behalf of our charity.

As we reported previously, Anthony, who is only 6! From 1st July, embarked on a country wide tour visiting over 50 Police Stations across our estate from the major cities, to the suburbs and the outer Islands.

From meeting the Chief Constable (where he was duly promoted), to taking fingerprints or doing maintenance on our Police fleet, Anthony has given it his all and was ably assisted by his parental probationers.  Our pocket dynamo has totted up the miles, 2,250.4 miles to be exact, and the cash for us!

We know Anthony has many adventures to come and we know there are plans for a calendar later this year using some of the fantastic ‘Scene of the Crime’ photos taken whilst on his travels.  Watch this space for details!!

Anthony has so far raised a whopping £2,206 for us and it’s still going.   If you would like to donate please click on this link to take you direct to Anthony’s just giving page.

Thanks again Anthony for all your efforts, you certainly earned a rest (not arrest!) and your fund raising will go towards helping our members in times of need.  So take a bow DCC Green 😉

Dog Tired but what a Guy!!

We would just like to thank our intrepid explorer retired officer Tony Catlan for his support raising the fantastic sum of £890.

Tony took on the Cape Wrath trail (Fort William to Cape Wrath) to raise funds for the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund. In the end he walked 248 miles, climbed a total of 43,000 feet (one and a half times the height of Everest), all while carrying 20 kilos of equipment on his back.

The trail is not for the faint hearted or inexperienced. Tony said the weather conditions were kind to him, but he still regularly woke up with ice on his tent. He snapped a walking pole, got cracked fingers from the cold and nearly stumbled onto a snake. There is limited phone signal on the route so if anything goes wrong all you can do is hope it’s not too many days before you bump into the next person on the trail.

The entire route is challenging, but Tony said the hardest bit of the trail was behind the Torridon mountains. At one point it took him 6 hours to cover 6km due to a massive bolder field and boggy terrain. He said, the views from Beinn Eighe were worth it though.

In all it took 17 days to complete the challenge, although not content with that he spent a couple of days camping and cold water dipping in the North Atlantic before finely returning home.

Tony used his time wisely on his mammoth trek and managed to learn some Robbie Burns, ‘A Man’s a Man for a’ That.’

Well, when we caught up with this Man, he was thankfully taking a well-deserved rest and enjoying home comforts and a cuppa.

Thanks again Tony, we are incredibly grateful for your efforts and the fact you chose to support the SPBF, giving us vital additional funds so we can support serving and retired officers/ staff and their dependents in time of need.

GIVE A KID A QUID

Meet Anthony

Anthony has autism and is very passionate about the Police.  He began visiting Glenrothes Police station to see the Police cars and meet the local Bobbies and is now known as ‘Special Constable Green’.

Anthony and his dad who has no connection to the Police have planned a trip to visit 50 Police stations around Scotland, in July 2024, in a bid to raise money for the Scottish Police Benevolent Fund.

Anthony will be taking photographs along the way and making a 2025 calendar with pictures from his encounters of all the stations and departments.

Please, if you can, donate on the below just giving page and if everyone managed to donate a single £1 Anthony will be overwhelmed.

Here is a direct link to Anthony’s Just Giving Page here.   Please feel free to share this post far and wide with friends and family on Facebook, Twitter and any other Social Media you can think off and lets make this as special for Anthony as we can.

Have a fabulous time Anthony, we will be watching with great interest as you go on your grand adventure.

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