Excuse the thread drift, but it is PNC-related.
Many moons ago the 80s during my RCT days, I was guard commander at Regents Park Barracks. There was a suspicion that there were a couple of IRA active service units out and about in London.
We had a detachment of THEM operating out of Regents Park. Due to the heightened alert state we also usually had a copper from Albany Street nick on the gate helping us.
One of THEMs units were using a beat-up looking Ford Transit masquerading as a builder’s van. Apparently it was much souped-up underneath. We had been briefed on which vehicles THEM were using and just to wave them through the gate without stopping or searching their vehicles.
The Transit returned one day and parked just inside the gate. I asked the young WPC on the gate, for a bit of a laugh, to call up for a PNC check.
She got on her radio and passed the reg number. A rather panicked voice on the other end of the radio asked: “Have you stopped this vehicle?”
“No,” she replied. “It’s parked near the barracks.”
The radio op said: “It comes up as ‘refer to another force’ I can’t say which one over the radio, just walk away and call in on a land line please.”
I’m not sure what it would have shown on the PNC, but it did cause some level of panic. After that, each of the coppers in Albany Street nick were given a list of vehicles that were to be left alone.
Poor girl was commended for being conscientious but bollocked for not paying attention in briefings. Luckily she didn’t grass up the dumb squaddie who put her up to it.
Sorry for the thread drift.
She shouldn't really have got bollocked. It should have flashed up as an alphabetically numbered category and either refer to file or command station at Division. The process would then allow access to microfilm or in this case a polite order to ignore.
Edited to remove a letter and stuff.
Last edited: