A whistleblower says the PSNI, Policing Board and Department for Justice were all told about the theft of equipment from a police training centre years ago, but no action was taken.
The finds were made after a series of searches at a police officer’s home and a PSNI facility at Steeple in Antrim.
Details of the haul emerged as police confirmed on Tuesday that a 63-year-old serving officer has been charged with theft of ammunition and other related offences.
In a report prepared for the Policing Board, it has been confirmed that on October 8, a PSNI officer was arrested on suspicion of theft and a search carried out at his home address.
The Operation Constraint briefing paper confirms that police seized various items suspected to have been stolen from the PSNI, including targets and a variety of loose rounds.
The suspected stolen cache included brass casings and live ammunition in their original boxes.
The seized rounds, 25,000 of assorted ammunition, is in excess of the 16,000 the suspect is entitled to hold.
On October 12 searches were carried out at the PSNI’s Steeple facility by members of the Tactical Support Group.
During these searches, a Heckler and Koch MP5 9mm submachine gun and a small quantity of live rounds were located in a locker. The weapon was reported lost in 2020.
A deactivated “AK variant”, believed to be a variant of an AK-47 assault rifle, was also found in a storage room at the centre.
It has now emerged that an anonymous letter sent to the Policing Board in July was then forwarded to the PSNI’s Professional Standards Department (PSD).
A whistleblower claims that over “this past few years” they informed the office of the Chief Constable, the Policing Board and Department of Justice about the theft of ammunition, targets and other equipment from the PSNI’s Steeple facility.
The author of the letter suggests that previous contact was ignored.
“But it seems the PSNI authorities is not receptive to hearing or dealing with misconduct, or serious matters of theft,” they wrote.
“The Chief Constable talks about the force being open, and improving, also cost, well he(re) is a case that is known about and blind eye, or backs being turned.
“For the good of the PSNI, please take action now.”
The PSNI has said that no records are held by the Anti-Corruption Intelligence Unit, which is part of PSD, and the Chief Constable’s office of any previous reporting.
SDLP Stormont Justice Committee member Patsy McGlone said a full investigation is needed.
“Nothing less than a full investigation will do to establish when it became apparent that significant amounts of ammunition were missing, who knew and what was done about it as soon as it was discovered,” he said.
He described the development as “both incredible and very worrying”.
“A comprehensive investigation must show how this could happen in the first place and how and where this ammunition went to,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Policing Board said: “The board received anonymous correspondence in July 2025 which was immediately passed to PSNI for investigation.
“The board has no record of any previous ‘whistleblower’ communication being received.”
The PSNI and DoJ were contacted.