Police spent £800,000 investigating false claims of sexual assault against Sir Cliff Richard — and £11,000 on hotel rooms

POLICE spent £800,000 investigating false claims of sexual assault against Sir Cliff Richard, The Sun can reveal.

The bill for the two-year probe included £10,868 on hotels and £6,000 on hire cars.

The singer was paid compensation said to be more than £1million by South Yorkshire Police.

That means the total bill for the inquiry is around £2million.

The final cost to the taxpayer could be higher if his action against the BBC is successful.

Sir Cliff, 77, was in Portugal when cops raided his Berkshire home in 2014 after a false allegation of sex assault in 1985 was made.

The BBC filmed the raid which led to him being named.

Police spent £788,733.84 on the probe, including staff costs of £766,844.58, a Freedom of Information request revealed.

Sir Cliff later said of the inquiry: “It was a disastrous time emotionally.”

South Yorkshire Police said: “Non-recent allegations are difficult to investigate, which can take a considerable amount of time.”