Barnet Officer Led Police Inquiry

9:30am Thursday 17th August 2000

Barnet's top officer has successfully led the biggest anti-police corruption case the Metropolitan Police has seen in 30 years.

Borough commander Chief Superintendent John Yates led the investigation which saw five Scotland Yard detectives jailed for a total of 32 years for selling drugs obtained during raids. 'This is the first significant case for the Met's anti-corruption squad,' he said. The squad was set up by former police commissioner, Sir Paul Condon, in 1998 as a result of long-term intelligence work into corruption.

'The intelligence was looking at organised crime, but threw up a lot of criminals who had contacts in the service and threw up a lot of a lot of ex-police officers who had links with known criminals,' added Chief Supt Yates, who was brought onto the squad in 1998 to investigate detectives from Dulwich.

Officers Robert Clark and Chris Drury were jailed in February for 12 and 11 years respectively for their part in the 'groovy gang' which had been re-cycling drugs for five years. Colleagues Thomas Kingston, Thomas Reynolds and Terance O'Connell were jailed for a total of nine years last week.

'The allegations stretched out over more than a decade,' said Chief Supt Yates. 'This was a landmark case.'