The Don Beech Scandal was a storyline in the long-running police procedural

Police procedural

The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...

 British television series, The Bill

The Bill

The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...

.

The storyline centred around the corrupt

Police corruption

Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest....

 Detective Sergeant Don Beech. Since the character's debut in 1995, his corruption had steadily grown. His eventual downfall took place after Don Beech entered into a corrupt business relationship with local crime-boss

Crime boss

A crime boss or boss is a person in charge of a criminal organization. A boss typically has absolute or near-absolute control over his subordinates, is greatly feared by his subordinates for his ruthlessness and willingness to take lives in order to exert his influence, and profits come from the...

 Howard Fallon, with Beech destroying evidence implicating Fallon, intimidating witnesses and supplying intelligence on the progress of police investigations into Fallon's empire.

Unknown to Beech, fellow Detective Sergeant Claire Stanton was an undercover officer from the Complaints Investigation Bureau

Directorate of Professional Standards

The Directorate of Professional Standards is a directorate of London's Metropolitan Police Service. The Directorate is responsible for investigating complaints against the professional conduct of Officers, the DPS replaced the Complaints Investigation Bureau .The DPS focuses on standards, and the...

 who had infiltrated Sun Hill CID

Criminal Investigation Department

The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...

 to gather evidence and expose Beech's corrupt activities. Beech revealed his activities to fellow officer, DS John Boulton and offered him a bribe for his help in escaping his superiors. Bolton refused, and in the resulting fight Beech headbutt

Headbutt

A headbutt is a strike with the head, typically involving the use of robust parts of the cranium as areas of impact. Effective headbutting revolves around striking a sensitive area with a less sensitive area, such as striking the nose of an opponent with the forehead...

ed John Boulton breaking his nose causing him to collapse, Boulton responded by trying to strangle Beech, resulting in Beech slamming Boulton's head against the floor killing him.

The storyline caused the removal of many detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

s at Sun Hill CID who served with Beech, resulting in a "clean sweep" of CID introducing new characters into the show.

Characters removed

• Chief Superintendent Charles Brownlow - as the Station commander he was seen responsible for failing to notice Beech as he was in overall command, he later resigned rather than losing his pension and having his employment terminated.
• Detective Inspector Chris Deakin - as Don Beech's immediate superior, Deakin was considered responsible and was transferred for his lack of supervision.
• Detective Sergeant Geoff Daly - had suspected Beech's corruption but never managed to gather evidence, and due to Daly being the same rank as Beech he was transfererred due to lack of supervision and failing to notice Beech's activities.
• Detective Sergeant John Boulton - died after fight with Don Beech.
• Detective Sergeant Claire Stanton - received a transfer and promotion after exposing Don Beech's corruption.
• Detective Sergeant Don Beech - as a fugitive after killing DS Boulton, Don changed his appearance and escaped to Australia later returning to the UK to mastermind criminal activities, as seen in Beech on the Run.
• Detective Constable Kerry Holmes - applied for a transfer after being outraged that CIB wrongly suspected her as being involved with the corruption.

Characters that survived

• Detective Chief Inspector Jack Meadows - as head of CID and Beech's superior, Meadows was seen to have given Beech freedom to carry out his actions. Meadows was presented to a disciplinary board but was cleared from wrong-doing, later revealing that he only survived due to his connections at New Scotland Yard
  Scotland Yard
  Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
  
  .
• Detective Constable Duncan Lennox - as Beech's subordinate he had no control over his activities, and after being investigated was not found to be involved.
• Detective Constable Mickey Webb - as with DC Lennox, Webb was Beech's subordinate and was not involved in corruption.
• Detective Constable Danny Glaze - like DCs Lennox and Webb, Glaze was not involved in corruption.

Characters introduced as result

• Superintendent Tom Chandler
• Detective Inspector Alex Cullen
• Detective Sergeant Vik Singh
• Detective Sergeant Debbie McAllister
• Detective Constable Paul Riley
• Detective Constable Kate Spears