http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2949479/British-police-67-return-flights-Portugal-cost-Madeleine-McCann-search-nears-9million.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490British police take 67 return flights to Portugal as cost of Madeleine McCann search nears £9million- EXCLUSIVE: Trips last year cost nearly £16,000, around £1,300 a month
- Came as police carried out largest ever search by British police overseas
- Eight-day search in Algarve in June ended with nothing of interest found
- David Cameron set a provisional budget for £5million for the investigation
- Operation Grange has cost around £2.5million every year for three years
- Home Office said this year's spend likely to be 'broadly in line' with past
British police searching for missing Madeleine McCann spent £16,000 on 67 return flights to Portugal last year, helping the cost of the investigation to soar to nearly £9million.
The trips, which cost more than £1,300 per month, came as the Met Police carried out the biggest ever search undertaken by a team of British police overseas, in a bid to find clues about the young girl's disappearance.
In June, police flew to the Algarve to carry out forensic searches around Praia da Luz, focusing on scrubland a few hundred metres from the apartment block where Madeleine was last seen alive.
The search for Madeleine McCann (pictured) has is nearing £9million with £16,000 spent on flights in the past year, new figures show.
But, despite an intensive eight-day search operation involving scores of officers carrying out ground excavations, police failed to find any clues.
According to figures released under a Freedom of Information act request, officers and staff made 48 return flights in the nine months between January and October. A further 19 were made to the end of December.
The cost for the flights was £15,945, an average of £238 per return flight.
As well as flights for the search, the trips involved several journeys made by officers to liaise with the Portuguese authorities prior to the excavations.
And in December, detectives DCI Nicola Wall and DCI Andy Redwood also travelled to Faro Police Station to question 'key witnesses' in the case. The three days involved overseeing the questioning of four British people and seven Portuguese citizens.
During the search, which was said to have been carried out to the ‘highest possible standards’, police combed an area of scrubland equal in size to around nine football pitches.
This included checking water pipes, drainage channels and derelict buildings around the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz on the Algarve.
Police also searched a horseshoe-shaped piece of waste ground that was specifically identified as an area of interest by the latest inquiry
The Home Office said it expected the spend on the investigation between 2014 and 2015, which is currently at £1.2m, to be 'broadly in line with previous years'.
In total, a Met spokesman said 41 ‘ground anomalies’ – areas where the earth had been disturbed – were discovered by aerial surveys and ground-penetrating radar equipment.
These sites, which included three outside the original area, were then painstakingly checked by search teams. But they said no evidence relating to Madeleine McCann had been identified.
Scotland Yard abandoned their search of land close to where Madeleine vanished in 2007, but said the multi-million-pound inquiry would continue.
The Home Office, which has spent around £2m per year on the investigation since 2011, said this year's spend was likely to be 'broadly in line' with previous years. It means the bill is likely to top £9m.
But despite the increased police activity in Portugal, other figures show the number of detectives on the investigation has reduced.
At one point there were 29 detectives among 37 staff trying to solve Madeleine's disappearance in Praia da Luz in Portugal.
Now, according to the figures, the number of detectives stands at 21, including 15 constables, three sergeants and two inspectors.
There are also nine police support staff and four agency staff - all ex police officers - on the 34-strong team, which is led by Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall.
Madeleine was just three when she went missing from her family's rented holiday apartment in the resort in May 2007, while her parents ate dinner nearby. There have been no positive sightings.
Operation Grange, the special investigation unit into the young girl's disappearance, was set up in 2011 by David Cameron. He set a provisional budget for £5million for the investigation
In its first year, the unit cost close to £2million, with the vast majority of expenses attributed to police officer and staff pay.
Between 2012 and 2013, the most expensive leg of the investigation to date, £2.8million was spent on transport, salaries, overtime and premises cost. The following year, through to 2014, the Home Office spent £2.6m.
Kate and Gerry McCann, both 46, from Rothley, Leicester, have fought a tireless campaign to find their missing daughter since, regularly appealing to police to keep the investigation into her disappearance active.
Portuguese police closed their investigation into her disappearance in 2008 and it took a further three years of campaigning by the McCanns to force the Scotland Yard investigation.
Months after the three-year-old vanished, Leicestershire Constabulary was awarded two grants by the Home Office to help fund their efforts.
In 2008 they received £525,000 and were awarded a further £221,000 the following year before the case was handed over to Metropolitan Police.
In a statement, the Met said any reduction in overall numbers of staff - from 37 to 34 according to the figures - on the investigation was temporary.
It said: 'There has been no change to the level of resources allocated to the investigation and any reduction will be the result of natural wastage. Those individuals will be replaced in the near future.
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