Met targets internal corruption

The Metropolitan Police has said it is committed to rooting out corruption within the force following the conviction of six members of its narcotics squad.

It described the recent case as one of the biggest anti-corruption investigations in recent years.

A further number of significant cases of alleged corruption are awaiting trial, Scotland Yard added.

The six convicted detectives, based in south London, were involved in a drugs conspiracy which revolved around them selling drugs seized in police raids.

If an elite squad turns to crime, their whole efforts are aborted and society suffers

Mr. Justice Blofeld

The extent of the corruption was made public after the final court case involving the officers ended at the Old Bailey on Friday.

The criminal operation was only discovered when a female drugs dealer, who became the lover of the group's ringleader, turned supergrass.

Earlier trial

At a trial in February, the group's so-called ringleader Robert Clark was jailed for 12 years and his "enthusiastic lieutenant" Christopher Drury was jailed for 11 years.

Their conviction and sentences were not allowed to be published until Friday, because of pending proceedings.

The scale of corruption in the 9 Regional Crime Squad based at East Dulwich, was exposed by drugs dealer Evelyn Fleckney, 44, who provided the Police Complaints Investigation Bureau with details of her dealings with Clark.

She came into contact with Clark in the early 1990s after she was arrested and then turned informer.

Neil Putnam "wrestled with his conscience" after being interviewed

They became lovers and she sold drugs he and his colleagues had seized.

When an internal investigation began, another officer "wrestled with his conscience" and decided to tell all he knew of the corruption in the squad.

Detective Constable Neil Putnam's evidence became the mainstay of the prosecution's case in the Old Bailey trials of his colleagues.

Putnam was jailed for three years 11 months and Fleckney for four and a half years in February for their parts in drug-dealing.

Mr. Justice Blofeld said at the time that if police turned to crime, "the whole fabric of society was affected".

He said: "If an elite squad, which SERCS at Dulwich was - there to try and catch the most sophisticated criminals who sadly abound in society - turns to crime, their whole efforts are aborted and society suffers."

The judge criticised the lack of supervision by senior officers, which had allowed the detectives to put themselves above the law.

Putnam has been released from jail and Fleckney's sentence was to run concurrently with a 15-year term for a separate drugs offence.