Claimed to be Britain's then youngest police sergeant at age 23, after passing a fast track examination he was appointed Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police in 1983. He was appointed chairman of Goldshield in 2006, a pharmaceuticals business that was facing a criminal prosecution for colluding to overcharge the NHS for generic drugs.

He later became Chief Constable of Cleveland police and in 1993 became Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. He resigned from his position in July 2002 over the government's reclassification of cannabis from a Class B to a Class C substance. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites.Keith Hellawell QPM (born 18 May 1942) is a British retired police officer, [1] former UK Government drugs-czar, ex-chairman of Sports Direct plc. citation needed] Rising through the ranks, including working in CID, he was appointed Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police in 1983, then Deputy Chief Constable of Humberside Police in 1985. So Wednesday’s annual shareholder meeting at embattled retailer Sports Direct – where Hellawell will be bracing himself for investors to vote on his future as the company’s chairman – merely appears like the continuation of a trend. However, since then, new rules mean that non-executive directors in companies with a single dominant investor must be put to a vote of minority shareholders first.

It was a hard-bitten, inauspicious start for a man who was eventually to become Chief Constable of Cleveland, and then West Yorkshire, and later, controversially, New Labour’s much-feted and summarily dismissed ‘Drugs Tsar’. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Bradford in 1998, [19] and an honorary degree by Leeds Metropolitan University in 1997. He fell out with his Whitehall bosses and, while he had already resigned, publicly announced his departure in 2002 during an interview on Radio Four’s Today programme.Thereafter he as successively Deputy Chief Constable, Humberside Police, Chief Constable, Cleveland Police, and Chief Constable, West Yorkshire Police. He has previously talked of how he never knew his father and how as a boy he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a young man who had access to their tenement rooms. Keith Hellawell was born and brought up in Yorkshire and, after spending some years working as a minter, has been a policeman all his life. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is the changing nature of policing since the 1960s, when crime was far lower and villains were regularly given a good hiding. He endured it as a controversial chief constable of West Yorkshire police – and then memorably again during his quarrelsome stint as an adviser on drugs policy to the last Labour government.

Sports Direct's founder and Executive Deputy chairman – Mike Ashley – was criticised by the tribunal for 'disgraceful and unlawful employment practices'. He deals with the issues of racism, sexism and political correctness, and provides a rare insight into the workings of the judiciary, royalty and the establishment. He also completed an MSc in Social Policy from Cranfield University and an external degree in Law from the University of London. As a teenager he went to work in the coal mines, before joining the police force at 20, where he was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 1965 and inspector in 1966. In the seventies he served in Northern Ireland, and h became Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police in 1983.The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice. Here is a man of intellect, probity, progressive ideas and the energy to carry them through, who spent his working life in the two most rigid, conservative and autocratic organisations in the country-the police force and the civil service. In his current guise, the former policeman has become the obvious target for disgruntled investors in the sportswear chain, which is 55% owned by the billionaire Mike Ashley and has been widely criticised over its working practices and corporate governance. tv View image in fullscreen Keith Hellawell appearing before the Scottish Affairs Committee 2015 Photograph: parliamentlive.

Hellawell resigned from his position as Sports Direct chairman in September 2018, on the day of the company's AGM. When quizzed about then home secretary David Blunkett’s plan to downgrade the classification of cannabis from a Class B drug to Class C, Hellawell said on air that he opposed the policy.The tough life of one of Britain’s most senior policemen, who rose through the ranks from poverty and deprivation to the highest office, and went on to become Blair’s ‘Drug Czar’.