A DETECTIVE accused of corruption had been cleared of any wrongdoing after a previous inquiry into his use of police computer databases.

Det Sgt Paul Thompson is on trial accused of making illegal checks on the police computer for a drugs gang who were allegedly supplying him with cocaine.

Newcastle Crown Court yesterday heard Northumbria Police’s professional standards department had investigated Thompson in 2006, but the allegation was found to be unsubstantiated.

On that occasion, while still a PC, he had looked up the details of a person who had been involved in a car crash with his 70-year-old father-in-law.

However, he was cleared of any wrongdoing after it emerged he had secured the permission of his sergeant to look it up.

Retired Det Ch Insp Joan Atkin, who supervised the investigation, told the court: “He was alleged to have abused his position as a police officer by accessing the force computer and taking print-offs.

“He went in the system and found out details about the person involved in an accident with his father-in-law. He took print-offs and forwarded them to Durham Police, who were investigating the road traffic accident.

“The allegation proved unsubstantiated because he had permission to access the computer at the time by the person who was his line manager at the time, his sergeant, he being a PC at the time.

“He stressed in interview he only accessed the computer for the purposes of the accident and for no other purposes.”

The accident he was looking into involved his 70-year-old father-in-law,.

He was in a car with two young children when it was struck by a vehicle driven by another motorist.

Thompson, off-duty at the time, happened upon the scene of the accident, reported it and then got the permission of his boss to look up the other driver on the police computer.

Thompson is now on trial accused of abusing his position to carry out illegal checks on the police national computer on his alleged underworld associates.