Harold Challenor Harold Gordon " Tanky " Challenor , MM ( 16 March 1922 – 28 August 2008 ) was a wartime member of the SAS , decorated for his part in Operation Speedwell . After the war he joined the Metropolitan Police , spending much of his career in CID . In 1963 , when holding the rank of Detective Sergeant , he was charged with corruption offences and was subsequently found to have been suffering from mental health problems and deemed not to be fit to stand trial . He was sent to a secure hospital , and on his release , he joined the firm of solicitors which had defended him . A public enquiry was held into his actions and why his health problems had not been noticed by his superiors . War service . During the Second World War , Challenor served as a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps in North Africa and Italy between 1942 and 1944 before joining 62 Commando , which later formed part of the Special Air Service , as a lance - corporal . He later described himself as " the most aggressive medical orderly the Commandos ever had " . He received the nickname of " Tanky " after losing his commando beret and having to borrow one from the Tank Corps . From 7 September 1943 , he took part in Operation Speedwell in which he helped derail three trains behind enemy lines . Following the operation , Challenor was twice captured but managed to escape each time , eventually reaching safety . He was one of only two out of the six soldiers involved in the operation to survive . Challenor was awarded the Military Medal on 9 November 1944 . The citation read : In later service , Challoner began to show a propensity for violence towards prisoners . In describing an occasion when he was in charge of some captive Gestapo officers , he recalled that " [ o ] ne of them made the mistake of smiling at me . The gaze I returned had him backing away . Then I took them out one by one and exercised them with some stiff fisticuffs . " He was already showing signs of delusions at this stage of his career . Challenor eventually reached the rank of company quartermaster sergeant before completing his military service in 1947 . Police service . Challenor joined the Metropolitan police in 1951 . During his police career , he served in the CID and the Flying Squad before eventually moving to West End Central Police Station in Mayfair in 1962 , from here he was involved in policing the Soho area of London . At one point , he had a record of over 100 arrests in seven months and he eventually totalled 600 arrests and received 18 commendations . By the end of his career , Challoner ' s " modus operandi " included punching a suspect from Barbados while singing " Bongo , bongo , bongo , I don ' t want to leave the Congo " . Various of his defendants claimed to have been beaten up or have had evidence planted on them but , at first , this did not prevent conviction . However , Challenor met his match on 11 July 1963 when he arrested Donald Rooum , a cartoonist for " Peace News " , who was demonstrating outside Claridge ' s hotel against Queen Frederika of Greece . He told Rooum " You ' re fucking nicked , my beauty . Boo the Queen , would you ? " and hit him on the head . Going through Rooum ' s possessions , Challenor added a half - brick , saying , " There you are , me old darling . Carrying an offensive weapon . You can get two years for that . " Rooum , a member of the National Council for Civil Liberties who had read about forensic science , handed his clothes to his solicitor for testing . No brick dust or appropriate wear and tear were found and Rooum was acquitted , although other people Challenor arrested at the demonstration were still convicted on his evidence . By the time Challenor appeared at the Old Bailey in 1964 , charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice , he was deemed to be unfit to plead and was sent to Netherne mental hospital with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia . More recently it has been suggested that he might have been suffering from Post - Traumatic Stress Disorder . Three other detectives ( David Oakley , Frank Battes and Keith Goldsmith ) were sentenced to three years in prison . The case of Challenor was raised in parliament on several occasions . A statutory inquiry headed by Arthur James was eventually set up - the first such under the Police Act 1964 . It was considered by some to be a whitewash and to have allowed police corruption to continue within the Metropolitan police unabated . In the report , Challenor ' s mental illness was blamed for the false arrests rather than a systemic policy of framing suspects . The lack of a follow - up prosecution of Challenor after he was discharged from hospital was also criticised as establishment corruption . Because of this , " doing a Challenor " became a police slang expression for avoiding punishment and prosecution through retiring sick from the force . " According to Mary Grigg ' s " The Challenor Case " , a total of twenty - six innocent men were charged during Challenor ' s corrupt activities . Of these thirteen were imprisoned spending a total of thirteen years in gaol . On his release from the hospital , Challoner worked for the firm of solicitors which had defended him during his trial . " In film and literature . In 1966 , BBC ' s Wednesday Play television series included Clive Exton ' s " The Boneyard " whose main character - a psychotic police officer - was based on Challenor . Challenor was the subject of the novel " The Strange Affair " by Bernard Toms and of the 1968 film of the same name . He also was the model for Inspector Truscott in the play " Loot " by Joe Orton , which also became a film . Challenor himself produced a memoir in 1990 entitled " SAS and the Met " . It was co - written with Alfred Draper .