POLICE chiefs today vowed to review ways of preventing sexual harassment in the force after two former officers successfully claimed they were ritually humiliated by male colleagues.

But Lancashire Constabulary, which is now waiting to hear how much compensation it will have to pay, said it would be taking no further action against any of the male officers accused of sexual discrimination and harassment by the former undercover detectives.

Caroline Arrowsmith, previously from Blackburn, and Laura Burman, previously from Accrington, took their case against Chief Constable Pauline Clare to a tribunal in Manchester more than two years ago after claiming they were less favourably treated in the workplace because they were women.

They were both members of a Preston-based surveillance unit and claimed their lives were made a misery by colleagues branded as the 'East Lancashire Mafia'.

At a ten-day hearing in Manchester in April 1999 former detective constable Arrowsmith, who medically retired from the force the previous year, said she was repeatedly subjected to lewd and offensive comments, excluded from conversations and made to feel 'useless and isolated'.

She said she was upset to see a poster of a nude woman on the wall and that officers had made remarks about the size of the woman's breasts and on one occasion replayed a surveillance tape several times which showed a woman and commented on her breasts. And former detective constable, Burman, who has now moved to Essex, told the tribunal that she had been upset by the sexual language and innuendo being used and found the attitude of male officers degrading to women.

She was also suffering from a bladder infection at time of the alleged offences and told the tribunal she had problems getting permission to get toilet breaks on operations.

On one occasion it was claimed she had been left alone in an observation van, in hot conditions, for three hours, without any back-up.

At the continuing tribunal in June 1999 Detective Inspector Graham Partington strongly denied the allegations and said there was 'banter in the unit but it was light-hearted.'

He also denied claims that he had suggested women should sign a contract promising they would not become pregnant.

Today assistant chief constable of Lancashire Julia Hodson said: "Our first reaction is one of disappointment because we made the decision to defend the claim vigorously and frankly after holding an internal investigation into the complaints that the two officers had made. We looked closely at all the complaints and concluded that no disciplinary action should be brought.

"The officers who conducted the internal inquiry did find that there had been some management shortcomings and we have already apologised for those but no discrimination was revealed."

She said it was made clear throughout the hearing that the constabulary had invested a lot of time and expertise in establishing force-wide procedures to deal with all types of inappropriate behaviour and encouraged colleagues to take advantage of the support that existed.

She said the force would look to see if lessons could be learned but remained convinced it did all it could to resolve the complaints. There were no plans for further action against the officers who were the subject of the complaints.