ACC PAYS OUT $3M TO DRUG-ADDICTED POLICE

CHRISTCHURCH - ACC has paid nearly $3 million to 12 former undercover
police officers suffering from drug addiction and post-traumatic
distress syndrome.

ACC issued the figures through Associate Minister Marie Hasler, who
was responding to an Official Information Act request from a former
undercover officer.

The figures show that the Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation
Insurance Corporation has paid $171,410 in lump-sum compensation for
loss of bodily function and enjoyment of life and $2,694,725 in
wage-related compensation to the former officers.

The first payments were made in 1990 when a former Dunedin undercover
officer claimed his work had turned him into a drug addict and
traumatised him to such an extent that he had post-traumatic distress
syndrome.

One officer working undercover in the late 1980s said he had received
about $550 net a week for the 10 years he had been out of the police.

He had not stopped using cannabis during that time.

"Some would say we have been on the pig's back, getting good money for
smoking dope."

"The real scandal is that it has been allowed to continue like this,
with undercover officers still being casualties."