McCann case cost £750k

BRITISH police have spent nearly £750,000 (€880,000) looking for Madeleine McCann.

Leicestershire Police said some of the money has been reimbursed by a Home Office grant of £525,000.

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns said yesterday: “Obviously they have spent a lot of money on helping to find Madeleine and they are grateful to them for that effort.

“But Leicestershire Police are still bound by the Portuguese authorities even though technically the case is shelved.”

The couple say they will believe Madeleine is alive until given clear evidence to the contrary. In May, Portuguese police said they were not reopening the case into the girl’s disappearance from Praia de Luz in May 2007.