A FORMER police inspector has criticised aspects of the search for Britons who died in the tsunami disaster.

Fred Farley, 66, an officer with Durham Police for more than 30 years, has dedicated himself to helping good causes overseas.

He visited Bosnia twice, delivering surgical equipment during the height of the conflict there, and has visited and raised money for a centre for blind youngsters in the Myanmar Republic, formerly Burma.

Mr Farley, of Coxhoe, County Durham, flew out to the island of Phuket, Thailand, where many British victims are thought to have died, to help relatives search for those people still miss-ing.

But he said he was offered little work and decided to return to the North-East after a few days because he felt he was not being used to his potential.

He said there was a control centre shared with several other countries, which was manned by consular staff and volunteers, where relatives could go for help and advice in their search.

He said: "There is a wall of photographs of missing people and all the nationalities are mixed up.

"People should be shown photographs by a British police officer and there should be an interpreter to go round making inquiries.

"Countries such as New Zealand, Finland and Australia had a police officer in the same room.

"People want to be relying on a police officer from this country. That would inspire confidence in relatives.

"The police have incident training and experience of dealing with disasters and things like murder investigations and handling distressing situations. Consular staff have not.

"I have got all my experience as a police inspector and I have done aid work, and to be told there was nothing for me was very disappointing."

There have been 50 confirmed British casualties so far, with hundreds of British tourists still missing two weeks after the tsunami.