French police chief in charge of stopping illegal migrant Channel crossings to Britain has been ‘absent’ most of the past 14 years playing golf and swimming instead, damning internal report claims

• Luc-Noel Larcher, 56, is accused of holding down a ‘fictious job’ on full pay

A French police chief in charge of stopping illegal migrant Channel crossings to Britain has been ‘absent’ for most of the past 14 years ‘playing golf’ and ‘swimming’, internal reports claim. 

Commander Luc-Noel Larcher, 56, is accused of holding down a ‘fictious job’ on full pay and overtime within the elite CRS (Republican Security Companies). 

The unit is meant to be spearheading the fight against illegal immigration using millions of pounds provided by the British taxpayer.

But police investigators are looking into the ‘suspected abuse of public funds’ by Larcher that could lead to ‘severe punishment,’ a spokesman for Meaux prosecutors said. 

His CRS 4 unit is a mobile one based near Paris, and they regularly head towards northern beaches to try to stop inflatable dinghies full of migrants from getting across the Channel.

Commander Luc-Noel Larcher, 56,  (pictured) is accused of holding down a ‘fictious job’ on full pay

His unit is meant to be spearheading the fight against illegal immigration using millions of pounds provided by the British taxpayer

Quoting an official report leaked to them by the police, the Parisien and FranceInfo news outlets report that Larcher has seldom joined them.

Instead, he has a ‘passion for golf, which he practices daily,’ and also enjoys himself in hotel swimming pools, investigators claim.

This has been going on for so long – since at least 2009 – that many of his colleagues do not even know what he looks like, the report claims.

On rare visits to the coast, he stays in a hotel well away from other CRS officers, and ‘spends his mornings in his room’.

The report continues: ‘He starts the day at noon, possibly carries out some administrative tasks, then devotes almost all of his afternoons to playing golf or swimming in the pool. And this continues until the end of the week.’

Larcher is also said to have claimed the equivalent of some £7000-a-year in mileage, saying he drives more than 28,000 miles (45,000kms) from his home near Paris.

There is also a claim that he used police meals delivered in a refrigerated lorry for a family wedding.

Fictitious overtime amounted to 440 extra hours in 2021 alone, along with 52 ‘rest days’ that he could not justify, says the report.

Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s (RNLI) members of staff help migrants to disembark from one of their lifeboat after they were picked up at sea while attempting to cross the English Channel

Loyal deputies acted like a ‘true mafia, supporting Larcher through thick and thin, according to the report.

It was only when a whistle-blower broke ranks with other corrupt officers that an investigation was launched.

Jean-Christophe Yaeche, Larcher’s lawyer, said his client was on sick leave and had no comment to make on the scandal.

Mr Yaeche said Larcher ‘had never had any problems with his duties, and had always been well rated by his superiors, and even decorated with the Order of Merit’.

Earlier this year, Britain pledged to fund an extra 500 French officers to patrol the country’s beaches.

This was part of a £500 million three-year Anglo-French deal to crack down on migrant crossings.

More than 26,000 people have got into Britain using small boats since the start of 2023, despite regular claims of government clampdowns.

This has included British observers being stationed in control rooms in France, even though they are not allowed to join patrols.

The French are often accused on being too lax, so leading to so many French boats getting across.

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