Codes to police stations missing

Entry codes to doors of police stations across London were stolen from a car, the Metropolitan Police have confirmed.

The list for access to 73 stations went missing after a car used by a vehicle maintenance contractor was stolen in Ealing, west London, on 28 December.

All codes on the list were changed within 12 hours and none were for "high security" stations, police said.

Commander Shaun Sawyer, the senior officer on call at the time, said: "There was no breach of security".

Police said the car was stolen after the driver had parked it.

There was no breach of security, and we did well to change every security code that might have been affected Commander Shaun Sawyer

The unofficial list of codes was missing when the car was found abandoned in the same area hours later.

No one has been arrested over the incident.

Southampton-based VT Group, the UK defence and services firm formerly known as Vosper Thorneycroft, which maintains the Met force's fleet of cars said it had launched an investigation.

Commander Sawyer said: "This was an unhelpful security issue.

"The driver had been working that day and he had parked his car in the street before it was stolen.

"There was no breach of security, and we did well to change every security code that might have been affected.

"I was woken up at 1am. By 3am, every one of the 73 police stations had been contacted, and by midday the next day, all the codes had been changed."

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police emphasised that the list, which was on plain paper on a clipboard, was "not an official Met list" but was compiled by the driver working for the contractor.

She said that even with the entry codes it would have been difficult to gain access to buildings, as there are secondary barriers inside.

Paul Lester, chief executive of VT Group, said he was informed of the incident on 29 December.

'Serious matter'

"We are checking all internal processes to understand what happened.

"The company and the Met are discussing issues as to how to strengthen processes so that it does not happen again," he said.

Shadow security minister Dame Pauline Neville-Jones said the fact that the driver compiled a list implies the "codes were not being changed frequently enough".

She said: "This is a serious matter.

"What he [Commander Sawyer] meant to say was that we are fortunate that nothing ensued from this security breach, but security breach there certainly was."

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Authority said members were "very concerned" and had called for a full report into the incident.