POLICE force bosses today denied claims by a long-serving officer who said he and colleagues were effectively being forced to take sick leave from Lancashire Constabulary because of shoddy treatment.

In September Chief Constable Pauline Clare (pictured) vowed to crack down on the problem of officers taking early retirement on "health grounds" and sick leave.

She has said exaggerated or invented health problems have been blamed for a national problem which looks set to cost the Lancashire force alone £8million by the end of the year.

But the officer, who is close to retirement and currently on long term sick leave with work-related stress, has told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph today people were being forced into retirement at the end of the careers because they were deemed a burden.

The Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said it had heard rumours of officers being unsettled by management after they had served 30 years, although nobody had produced hard evidence.

But Assistant Chief Constable Julia Hodson stressed that there was no policy of pushing people towards ill-health retirement.

Mrs Clare has said that the problem of sick leave was common throughout the emergency services.

It has been suggested that staff who are approaching normal retirement leave on health grounds in a bid to secure a medical pension, which is index linked straight away rather than at 55, as with a normal pension. But the officer, who lives and has worked in East Lancashire but who has asked not to be identified because he fears disciplinary action for speaking out, said: "There are currently a large number of officers in a similar situation to myself throughout the force and in the majority of cases this has been caused by the current attitude of the force towards officers who are approaching or have reached 30 years service."

The officer said that a vast majority reach 30 years service at around 49-years-old -- on the assumption they started at 19 -- leading to a clash with the force's own regulations, which allows constables and sergeants to work up to the age of 55 and inspectors up to the age of 60.

"The force fails to recognise that many officers have planned their future to retire at a later age which they are fully entitled to do," said the officer. "The force sees these people as a financial burden and since financial managers were brought in some years ago the policy is to try to force people to leave as soon as they reach 30 years by attempting to unsettle individuals.

"The force changes their work conditions drastically, transfers them, puts them back onto a shift system, gives them projects to do and affects them in many other ways so that they will leave prematurely."

The result, added the officer, is a culture of police officers upset by their "shoddy treatment" after years of loyal service leading to cases of "genuine stress.

"If Mrs Clare wished to reduce the officers taking early retirement then the force must start to treat its staff with some respect and listen to officers and support staff."

Steve Edwards, chairman of the Lancashire Police Federation, said: "I am aware of the rumours that when an officer reaches 30 years they are asked to do different shifts but nobody has come to us with hard evidence which we could go to the force with and ask them why?"

Assistant Chief Constable Julia Hodson said: "This constabulary tries to accommodate staff in whatever way it can to help them return to work after ill-health. Often officers can only perform restricted or recuperative duties in which case they cannot perform full operational duties. In such circumstances project work is entirely appropriate.

"Clearly staff nearing their pension are not consciously moved to more stressful operational duties but the requirement to serve operationally remains throughout service. As the pressure on the service is to provide front line uniform police officers and not to utilise them in posts that can be undertaken by non-police officers, then it is possible that officers could find themselves still performing shifts until their last day of service. Those that do take great pride in this and rightly so.

"There is neither a policy nor culture to push people towards ill-health retirement since it is not in the interests of efficiency or the public."