Russian prison official accused of stealing 31-mile stretch of road

Reports said the 7,000 concrete slabs were "dismantled and driven away" by Alexander Protopopov

Mr Protopopov faces 10 years in prison if he convicted (Getty/Alexander Nemenov)

A senior prison official has been accused of stealing the pavement from a 31-mile stretch of public road in Russia.

According to a report in the Russian daily newspaper, The Kommersant, Alexander Protopopov, acting deputy chief of the national prison service, oversaw the dismantling of a concrete highway and sold off the slabs in the thinly populated region of Komi, in northern Russia.

Investigators say the scheme had cost the Russian Federation over six million rubles, equivalent to around £54,000.

It is claimed that Mr Protopopov chipped away at the road – made up of 7,000 reinforced concrete slabs – over the period of more than a year, between 2014 and 2015. Reports add that the slabs were “dismantled and driven away” before being used by a commercial company which sold them for profit.

According to the New York Times one of Mr Protopopov’s most recent duties included inspecting the prisons in Crimea after the peninsula was annexed from Ukraine in March 2014. He led the prison service in the Komi region before his promotion last year.

He was arrested in Moscow and faces up to 10 years in prison if he is convicted of using his official position to steal public property. A judge could decide on Thursday whether to hold the prison official in jail pending trial.

Additional reporting by AFP