(Bloomberg) -- A police commissioner is urging U.K. prosecutors to probe Lloyds Banking Group Plc’s executive directors including its chief executive for withholding a whistleblower report from the board in 2014.

Chief Executive Officer Antonio Horta-Osorio, who took the helm in 2011, didn’t immediately flag that he received an extensive document in early 2014 outlining that fraud at its HBOS unit was concealed, Anthony Stansfeld, a police and crime commissioner said. His comments follow a meeting with the Serious Fraud Office this month.

The report which was written about five years ago, and made public only last summer, claimed that some HBOS executives hid the fraud at a branch in southern England, before the British lender acquired it at the peak of the financial crisis. It also said that Lloyds had evidence of the incident in late 2008, but didn’t disclose details to its shareholders.

“It’s concerning that the report was not shown by executive directors to their own chairman or non-executive directors for a further 3 years,” said Stansfeld, referring to Lloyds. “It should be object of a full scale criminal investigation,” he said. The report, written in 2013, was sent to the lender’s Chairman by Stansfeld in 2017, he said.

Stansfeld, the Thames Valley police and crime commissioner, met Lisa Osofsky, director of the SFO in a meeting he described as “constructive.” The SFO declined to comment.

The police in the area outside London previously investigated and convicted several people linked to HBOS over a scheme that siphoned millions from ailing businesses.

“Not Aware”

“We are not aware of any such investigation by the SFO,” Lloyds said in an emailed response.“We would, of course, assist it were one to be launched.” The bank said the report was provided to regulators and the police in 2014.

The local Thames Valley police conducted an extensive investigation into the HBOS scam, that siphoned millions from ailing businesses and eventually cost the lender around 250 million pounds ($320 million).

That led to the convictions in February 2017 of six individuals for fraud and money laundering. HBOS was the subject of one of the most controversial episodes of Britain’s financial crisis that led to a state-brokered takeover by Lloyds and a 20.3 billion-pound taxpayer bailout.

Thames Valley Police is the largest non-metropolitan police force in England and Wales. A U.K. police commissioner, who is elected, is responsible for overseeing how crime is tackled in a police force area.

The National Crime Agency launched a criminal probe and the Financial Conduct Authority is also investigating HBOS and the extent of its executives’ knowledge of the fraud, the Financial Times reported in July. The SFO’s mandate is to investigate and prosecute cases of serious or complex fraud.

“Given its scale and severity and the number of victims affected, the HBOS-Lloyds scandal is the very definition of serious fraud,” said Mary Inman, a partner at Constantine Cannon. “I am mystified by the failure of both the SFO and the FCA to take any meaningful enforcement action.”

The whistleblower, who was identified as Sally Masterton, a former risk officer, left Lloyds in 2014. The parties agreed to a financial settlement for an undisclosed sum.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stefania Spezzati in London at sspezzati@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Anthony Aarons

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