A DETECTIVE made illegal checks on the police computer for a drugs gang who were supplying him with cocaine, a court heard.
Det Sgt Paul Thompson allegedly accessed the Northumbria Police computer system for his half brother and others, who were behind a £600,000 cocaine plot.
Thompson and his executive wife, Susan, are alleged to have bought drugs from Brian Thompson and Mrs Thompson is alleged to have sold it on to her friends. When police raided their home as part of an alleged wider £600,000 cocaine plot investigation, they found traces of cocaine in a bedside cabinet and wardrobe, re-sealable polythene bags, a credit card and two sets of digital scales.
Now the policeman and his wife, half-brother and two others have gone on trial accused of offences including conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
Toby Hedworth QC, prosecuting, told jurors at Newcastle Crown Court: “In this case we have the extraordinary situation of a successful business executive sourcing the supply of class A drugs via her husband, a serving police officer, via the criminal network whose back he is covering by repeatedly checking the criminal intelligence systems.
“All the time Paul Thompson, in flagrant contravention of his role as a police officer, is acting as the eyes and ears of the organisation. He accessed intelligence on the Northumbria Police computer system which was not for police purposes but for his own or those of his criminal associates.”
Prosecutors claim Thompson had been getting cocaine from his half-brother, Brian Thompson, who is alleged to have got it from those higher up the chain.
An audit trail of the detective’s use of the Northumbria Police Integrated Computer and Communications System showed he had carried out checks on his half-brother and other criminal associates more than 100 times.
Between March 1998 and March 2010 he is said to have accessed the police database in respect of Brian Thompson 49 times.
And between September 2001 and October 2010 he is alleged to have checked out co-defendant Stephen Wood 78 times and between May 2007 and January 2011 checked on fellow accused David Wood – Stephen Wood’s brother – six times.
He is also said to have carried out checks on at least 25 other occasions.
Mr Hedworth said: “Paul Thompson and his wife Susan were not only recreational drug users of controlled drugs, but Mrs Thompson would also obtain supplies for her friends.
“But the traffic was not one way, because the corrupt relationship in which a police officer was acquiring controlled drugs allows the supplier to ask for not only money in return.
