Wingham Free Press has been hearing rumours for months about our last Chief Of Police. Recently a Letter to The Editor was submitted for posting on our site, stating this same rumour. We have verified the identity of the submitter, she does not want her name published, but said she can be referred to as the “Wingham Phantomâ€.
Sources say that the Former Chief of Police, Mr. Dore, was caught stealing gas and the police board decided to cover this up and make it go away. This is the reason people are giving for the Former Chief leaving 2 months earlier than originally planed.
This Letter to The Editor was not posted immediately as we felt it important to try and clear Mr. Dore’s good name before the rumours got out of hand. We have contacted the Wingham Police and the Police Services Board.
Chief Tim Poole has assured us that Former Chief was not arrested or charged with anything. He also mentioned that Mr. Dore left for a job with the Provincial Government’s Victim Witness Assistance Program and he would not be allowed to do so if those rumours were true.
That really didn’t clarify things, if it was a “cover upâ€, of course there would not be any charges on the public record.
I wanted a direct denial of these allegations, which was lacking in the first response, so I asked the following. “Can you confirm that the Former Chief was not involved in any corruption and there was no issue involving the Former Chief and gas. “
Chief Poole Response:
“I cannot comment on things that are not public record. If you require further information you should contact the police service board chair Archie MacGowan as they were employers. “
We asked Mr. MacGowan the following:
“Can you confirm that the former chief was not involved in any corruption and there was no issue involving the Former Chief and gas?â€
Archie MacGowan’s Response:
“Anything pertaining to an employee I will not be commenting on as this would be considered a personnel issue. “
We have sent several requests to Archie MacGowan and Chief Poole, asking to be put in contact with someone that can comment on this and clear the Former Chief’s name. The only response to these emails was “We are not in a position to provide any further comment.â€
Please note, we have not been able to determine if these allegations are true. The only thing we do know is that people that would have had first hand knowledge of this, refuse to deny it.
A direct denial of this would have made us dismiss the “Wingham Phantom†as a hoax and the letter would not have been published. This fact was made clear to Archie MacGowan in our first email, where he responded with the “I will not be commenting†remark.
Please note the Former Chief should be presumed innocent.
