Keith Hellawell QPM (born 18 May 1942) is a British retired police officer, former UK Government drugs-czar, ex-chairman of

Sports Direct Frasers Group plc (formerly known as Sports Direct International plc) is a British retail, sport and intellectual property group, named after its ownership of the department store chain House of Fraser. The company is best known for trading pre ...

plc. and current chairman of the

Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sha ...

Rugby League club After starting his career as a coal miner, he joined

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

Borough Police in 1962. 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 West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

Police in 1983.

Early life

Keith Hellawell was born 18 May 1942 in

Kirkburton Kirkburton is a village, civil parish and ward in Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is south-east of Huddersfield. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the township comprises the villages of Kirkburton and Highburton and ...

, near

, Yorkshire, UK. He went to school at Kirkburton Secondary Modern School until the age of 15, when he left without a single exam pass, then went to Dewsbury Technical College and Barnsley College of Mining. He started work as a coal miner in 1958 but left to pursue a career in the

Borough Police in 1962, gaining entry at the second attempt.

Police career

He became Britain's youngest

police sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

at the age of 23, and its youngest Inspector at 26. Rising through the ranks, including working in CID, he was appointed Assistant Chief Constable of

Police in 1983, then Deputy Chief Constable of

Humberside Police Humberside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing The East Riding of Yorkshire including Hull and northern parts of Lincolnshire including Grimsby and Scunthorpe. The chief constable since 2017 is Lee Freeman. Histor ...

in 1985. He received the

Queen's Police Medal for Distinguished Service The King's Police Medal (KPM) is awarded to police in the United Kingdom for gallantry or distinguished service. It was also formerly awarded within the wider British Empire, including Commonwealth countries, most of which now have their own hono ...

(QPM) in 1990. He also completed an MSc in Social Policy from Cranfield University and an

external degree An external degree is a degree offered by a university to students who have not been required to be physically present within the geographic territory of the institution. These undergraduates may be called ''external students'' and may study at c ...

in Law from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. He later became Chief Constable of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

police and in 1993 became Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. He has strong views on terrorists, child murderers and police murderers, believing all should face the death penalty. He spent 36 years in the police. He was the

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

government's drugs adviser and so-called " drugs czar" from January 1998. He resigned from his position in July 2002 over the government's reclassification of

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...

from a Class B to a Class C substance. Differences in opinion with the government over strategy towards tackling drugs were common during his tenure, during which he was paid £106,057 a year. Use of all drugs increased as did drugs deaths in his four years in office. In November 2002

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

published his autobiography called ''The Outsider: The Autobiography of One of Britain's Most Controversial Policemen''. It was serialised in the

Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...

. Two former detectives, Roy Smith and Laurence Andrews, took objection to the book which claimed they had conspired to pervert the course of justice when investigating a murder in 1968 in Aspley. They sued for libel at the

Royal Courts of Justice The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by Ge ...

in London and won their case in 2004.

Business career

Since 2006 Hellawell has been chairman of Goldshield Group plc. Hellawell served as chairman of

from 2009 to 2018. He was required to give evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Scottish Affairs on 25 March 2015 in relation to alleged poor employment practices at the company – particularly around its widespread use of 'zero-hours contracts' and the dismissal by its wholly owned subsidiary, USC, of 200 warehouse staff in Scotland with only 15 minutes' notice. 50 of those staff members were subsequently awarded compensation by an Employment Tribunal. Sports Direct's founder and Executive Deputy chairman – Mike Ashley – was criticised by the tribunal for 'disgraceful and unlawful employment practices'. In September 2015, Hellawell faced pressure to remove him as chairman of the company by minority shareholders. Following a profit fall during 2016 of 57%, Hellawell stated that an "extreme political, union and media campaign

ad been Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

waged against this company". The company's share price had about halved during 2016. Hellawell resigned from his position as Sports Direct chairman in September 2018, on the day of the company's AGM. In 2015 he became Chairman of SmartWitness, one of the UK's leading vehicle CCTV firms and later that year he called for the cessation of British Summer Time after research by SmartWitness CEO Paul A. Singh suggested that it would reduce pedestrian accidents in winter, especially for children. Keith has been a director of the

since 2002 and became interim chairman in March 2021 when the club's owner and chair

Ken Davy Kenneth Ernest Davy (born 1941) is an English businessman. He is the owner and chairman of the rugby league club Huddersfield Giants and former chairman of football club Huddersfield Town. He was also the Conservative Party candidate for Huddersf ...

took over as interim Super League chair

Personal life

Hellawell is married, with three children. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...

in 1998, and an honorary degree by

Leeds Metropolitan University Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in the city centre and Headingley. The univ ...

in 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hellawell, Keith 1942 births Living people English businesspeople Chief Constables of West Yorkshire Police People from Kirkburton Alumni of Cranfield University Alumni of University of London Worldwide Alumni of the University of London English recipients of the Queen's Police Medal