Blundering council officials sparked a police investigation after reporting heating oil had been stolen from a north-east school -only for it now to emerge the tank had simply been allowed to run dry.
Methlick School was closed on January 9 when the heating stopped working, forcing its 110 children to stay at home.
Aberdeenshire Council believed the tank – which can hold up to 3,500 litres of fuel – had been drained by thieves over the Christmas holidays.
And at the time it was reported by officials that as much as 2,000 litres might have been pilfered.
Following a two-week police investigation, however, it was determined that no crime was committed.
The authority then carried out its own inquiries and now, nine months later, has confirmed to the BBC that the liquid had evaporated.
.A little thread on the difficulties of getting info out of public bodies. On 10th January, Methlick primary school in @Aberdeenshire was closed because heating oil had been stolen from its fuel tank.
— Steven Duff (@duff_steven) January 25, 2018
Aberdeenshire Council has now said there was “miscommunication”.
A spokesman said: “We conducted a detailed investigation into the matter which confirmed the fuel was not stolen.
“The tank had in fact simply run dry and the investigation found there was no malicious intent in the miscommunication.
“Nonetheless, we have reviewed our procedures to ensure the proper verification of incidents before they are shared publicly and to ensure that such a situation does not arise again.
“While we acted in good faith at the time we would like to again apologise for the inconvenience caused to parents and pupils while the school was closed.”
The scale of the investigation pales in comparison to that undertaken in Croydon, London, where police were engaged in a three-year investigation into the deaths of more than 400 cats.
It was alleged the felines had been butchered by a sadistic cat serial killer, with the subsequent probe costing a small fortune.
It emerged earlier this year, however – following a number of expensive autopsies – that the deaths could be attributed to vehicles and foxes.
