Peterborough PCSO was '˜spy in the camp' who leaked information to known criminals

A corrupt Police Community Support Officer who leaked confidential intelligence to a drug dealer has been jailed for five years.

Gurpal Shehri, (28) of Glinton Road, Peterborough, passed on information to the man who he had met at the Fitness Station gym in Dogsthorpe.

He denied misconduct in a public office, but was found guilty at a trial.

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Jailing him at St Albans Crown Court, Judge John Plumstead said Shehri had “been a spy in the camp.”

He said: “It was an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder. This was treacherous behaviour towards the organisation you belonged to.

“The public is entitled to regard police officers and PCSOs as straight - those found not to be have to pay a high price.”

Prosecutor Richard Barrington earlier told the jury: “As a criminal, there is nothing better than knowing what your enemy knows. He gathered information in relation to a violent drug dealer and he passed on information that would no doubt have been valuable to him.”

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He said Shehri jotted down notes from Cambridgeshire police Camnet system that later were found at his home. Text messages between the PCSO and the drug dealer had been deleted.

“The data is sensitive and confidential. Each police employee has a PIN reference. It enables the prosecution to establish that the defendant was accessing the system. Users are warned all searches are logged and can be audited,” said the prosecutor.

He said the PCSO accessed the police computer system and found information which, in once case, was about another drug dealer that would be useful to someone in the same trade, he said.

Shehri, had also pleaded guilty to fraud. He had been cautioned in 2006, when aged 17, for a public order offence. He gave his brother’s date of birth when he accepted the caution. When he applied to become a PCSO in 2008 he did not declare the caution on three forms he had to fill in. “A caution should lead to the automatic rejection of the applicant,” said Mr Barrington.

Over the course of his employment with the force, he received gross pay of £103,000.