Prostitute-using sergeant sacked

A police officer who abandoned colleagues on a 999 call to visit prostitutes has been sacked.

Sergeant Karl Cliff, 42, of Merseyside Police, admitted misconduct in a public office last month and was given a suspended eight-month jail sentence.

Cliff, of Flint, North Wales, who had been under surveillance, was caught by his colleagues while he was with a prostitute in his squad car.

A Merseyside Police spokesman confirmed on Tuesday the officer has been sacked.

He had previously been suspended by the force.

Burglary call

Liverpool Crown Court heard last month that Cliff had pestered one prostitute so much she reported him to his already suspicious colleagues, and a surveillance operation was mounted.

He regularly left his base in Wallasey to travel through the Mersey tunnel to fraternise with prostitutes in Liverpool's city centre red light district.

Cliff was driving to see them one night when he failed to support colleagues dealing with a burglary where it was thought the raiders were still present.

He was eventually arrested after being caught with a prostitute in his car parked behind a B&Q store.