To the last moment Gurbux Singh looked dapper and upstanding, forcing his way through a barrage of press, cameras and flashing bulbs.
The court appearance was nothing more than another routine day in the office.
Then came the bombshells. Guilty to using threatening behaviour, waving fists at a police officer shouting: 'I'll have your jobs...do you know who I am?"
As for the fruitier language used, well we simply cannot use words like that here. But we do know he has friends in high places. Or so Bow Street Magistrates was told.
The nails in his public coffin, though, were surely the paltry 拢500 fine...a slap on the wrists...and the revelation that he had a six figure pay off to cushion his humiliating fall.
Britain suddenly had another topic to discuss over the evening meal. The debate: does crime pay? Discuss.
The criticisms came in thick and fast and NOT from the usual suspects. Shahid Malik a former colleague on the Commission for Racial Equality:
"It is absolutely right that Mr Singh had to go. No equivocation there," Mr Malik told Today . "I do however think, if indeed he has got a large six-figure pay out, that will send out entirely the wrong message and will be counterproductive. It is saying that crime pays when clearly it should not and it must not. "
But here are some things to consider.
First will we ever know how accurate the settlement figure is or how it was reached? How much was his pension entitlement, for example.
There will only be two sources to get at the truth - the 91热爆 Office and Mr. Singh. Neither are likely to talk officially - for now.
Second was it part of his contract that Gurbux Singh would be compensated if he did not see his term through? Even friends had to couch their support over this issue:
Labour peer Baroness Uddin speaking on Today this morning:
"Public bodies, quangos, need to examine in the light of this fact their contractual obligations. Overall, I think there has been quite good discussions about not associating this particular incident or the outcome with what needs to happen to CRE."
That's clear then.
Third is Mr. Singh taking the flack that should really be aimed at the 91热爆 Office?
The CRE is still reeling over the revelation that it has allegedly lost two years worth of tapes over the investigation into the Feltham Young Offenders Institution.
The brouhaha will last for a few days and will disappear until the next crisis to hit the twenty-five year old Commission for Racial Equality.
But we should never lose sight of the main victim in all this. Gurbux Singh, a man described by his friends as honourable, who in a moment of drunken madness, let his career slip by.
Um...Who would be a public servant today?
