THE Met Police has paid out nearly £500,000 in compensation across south-east London in the past three years.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show 49 claimants collectively received £494,188 in Lewisham, Greenwich, Bromley and Bexley from April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2006.

The average amount each claimant received during this period was just over £10,000.

Out of the four boroughs, Lewisham paid out the most.

It paid out £293,238 to 20 claimants.

Greenwich paid out £134,350 to 20 claimants.

Bromley paid £64,600 to seven claimants - of which one person received £60,000 - and Bexley forked out a total of £2,000 to two people.

Chairman of police watchdog the Metropolitan Police Authority Len Duvall says he will be talking to Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair about the compensation figures.

He said: "Any amount of compensation paid out is a matter of concern and I want the Met to get this figure down.

"What will be of concern is if there are certain issues constantly being repeated."

Although 49 claimants received payments in the three-year period, a total of 79 applications were made, of which 30 are still to be dealt with.

Claims can take anything between 18 months to three years to settle and people have up to six years to bring a civil action.

The Met specifies seven categories people can claim under.

These include assault, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and negligence.

But it said it did not hold statistical information on reasons for each of the 49 payouts.

The Freedom of Information report released to News Shopper read: "Owing to this, the Metropolitan Police Service does not keep any statistical information on reasons for payouts as this may be misleading.

"It is also a tactic on the part of solicitors acting for the claimant to claim under as many claim heads as possible, even if there is no evidence to support the claim."