The Royal Gibraltar Police said goodbye to Chief Inspector Thomas Tunbridge this week.

CI Tunbridge has been an RGP officer for just under 27 years and has spent almost 20 of those years in the force’s Economic Crime Unit at every rank from Detective Constable to DCI.

The massive rugby and basketball fan had a formal farewell in the Commissioner’s Suite on Thursday afternoon (27 Feb) and was about to sneak out of New Mole House when he was surprised by around 50 officers, who had gathered to say goodbye. CI Tunbridge then gave an impromptu speech before leaving the station.

Tom, 50, praised officers for the hard work they do every day to keep people safe, saying the organisation is the good people in it and they should not be disheartened by parts of the community that make assertions about everyone based on the few.

Having joined in 1998, he spent the first year in frontline policing, during which time he was seriously assaulted and required surgery. He then became a Community Constable patrolling Glacis and Laguna. 

After a year in the Criminal Investigation Department, he joined the ECU to embark on his first large scale fraud case – the collapse of the Rock Financial Limited. Some of Tom's biggest achievements were investigating the Marrache Law Firm, which lead to Gibraltar's longest criminal trial and the investigation into the Grace 1 oil tanker. 

In 2016, he headed up the newly incorporated Money Laundering Investigation Unit and was the RGP’s lead in Gibraltar's MoneyVal assessment team for eight years. Tom was instrumental in the creation of the Gibraltar Recovered Assets Fund, which puts assets seized from criminals to good use in the fight against economic crime, as well as driving the evolution of the ECU to include civilian investigators, accountants and a lawyer. 

Since 2021, Tom also acted as the RGP’s head of wellbeing and was there when he could to help those going through tough times.

Tom, a father of two grown up children, will now have time for what he calls his other career having been involved in coaching youth basketball and rugby for over 25 years. 

He added: “I'll keep playing basketball competitively in the local league. I have dreams of being fitter in my 50s than in my 40s – especially since I hung up my rugby boots last summer.”

A spokesman for the Royal Gibraltar Police, said: “Tom is a very popular officer amongst his colleagues and he will be thoroughly missed. We wish Tom all the best in his well-earned retirement.”