Officer faces jail over card use

Salkeld has been suspended from Sussex Police

A senior detective found guilty of misusing police credit cards has been warned that he faces a jail sentence.

Det Ch Insp Peter Salkeld, 42, of Shoreham, West Sussex, was found guilty of 11 charges relating to theft and deception on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Maidstone Crown Court jury was discharged after it failed to reach verdicts on three other charges.

Judge Andrew Macdonald said: "A custodial sentence is almost inevitable."

The charges of theft between December 2000 and January 2006 that the jury were unable to deliver a verdict on charges concerning 93-year-old Eileen Savage.

Personal items

A re-trial for the charges has not been ruled out.

On Tuesday Salkeld, who is currently suspended from the South East Regional Intelligence Unit, was cleared of four counts of obtaining property by deception and one count of theft.

He was found guilty of 11 counts of theft, obtaining property by deception and obtaining a money transfer by deception.

The court heard he used a Sussex Police credit card to buy a number of personal items.

The jury was also told he claimed a grant from Sussex Police's Welfare Fund for £1,100, which he used to buy caravanning equipment.

Salkeld was found guilty of dishonestly obtaining payments for Mrs Savage's care and accommodation at a nursing home at the expense of Brighton and Hove City Council.

He will be sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on 13 March.