Detective who sold secrets jailed

Dennis (left) was filmed receiving payment from Griffin

A police officer who sold secrets to a private investigator has been jailed at Southwark Crown Court for 15 months.

Det Sgt Paul Dennis, 48, passed details of car owners, previous convictions and police inquiries to Owen Griffin, 53, a former colleague turned private eye.

Dennis, from Barnet, north London, was convicted of four public office misconduct counts between April and September 2005.

Griffin, of Staines, was jailed for one year for aiding and abetting the crime.

Surveillance techniques

Dennis argued he was "naive" not dishonest, adding some of the material was designed to help solve two murder cases, including that of schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

If private individuals have access to confidential information from these sources, confidence in this system breaks down William Redgraveprosecuting

Father-of-three Dennis was responsible for monitoring sex offenders and violent criminals in Barnet, the court heard.

Griffin ran a private detective agency called Surelock in Farnborough, Hampshire.

"He encouraged the detective to make the inquiries and give him what he found out," William Redgrave, prosecuting, told jurors.

Police covertly recorded Griffin and Dennis discussing payment on the phone and on another occasion filmed the pair shaking hands.

During a search of Dennis's home, officers found £2,000 inside the officer's glasses case.

"Some police databases contain intelligence that need to be kept secret for obvious reasons," said Mr Redgrave.

"If private individuals have access to confidential information from these sources, confidence in this system breaks down.

"Who would volunteer information to the police if they knew there was a risk of it going out?"

Outside the court, Det Ch Insp Steven Wallace said the surveillance operations were complicated by the fact that they were dealing with police officers.

"We are looking at police officers who are aware of our surveillance techniques so they tend to be long operations, in this case a year," he said.

"But we treat these cases extremely seriously because of our reputation and I think the sentence basically reflects how seriously the courts treat this."