Security boost after detective stole £400k of cocaine

The chief constable of Greater Manchester Police has said the force’s security has been "tightened up" after an "irredeemably corrupt" detective stole cocaine valued at £400,000 from property stores.

Andrew Talbot, 54, from Leigh, was jailed for 19 years after he stole 4kg (9lb) of the drug from police property rooms between 2018 and 2020.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the former Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officer was a cocaine addict who used police systems to find a drug dealer to help him sell the drug on the streets of Manchester.

Chief Constable Stephen Watson said he was satisfied security had improved but he added "at the heart of all these processes you do have to have trust". 

Talbot was arrested after an investigation by the force’s anti-corruption unit after cocaine was found in his coat as he arrived for work in February 2020.

Officers discovered he had stuffed as much cocaine as he could fit into his pockets during visits to the property store and had then conspired to sell the drug on.

Mr Watson said he had "personally fired" Talbot.

He said he told the former detective he had become "hopelessly corrupted".

The chief constable admitted it was a "valid question" when he was asked during a phone-in on BBC Radio Manchester how the cocaine had been taken from police stores.

He said he was now happy that systems had been "tightened" and added that such a situation was "entirely unlikely to happen again".

Mr Watson added: "The fact of the matter is there were always good levels of security, there were good levels of scrutiny, but at the heart of all these processes you do have to have trust."

He said police often handled "significant quantities of drugs and cash" but the weakness was that there was "a character who could not be trusted" within the force.

"There’s simply no denying it, we had an experienced officer here who had fallen well off the path of carrying forward the responsibilities of a police constable," he said.

"He had become hopelessly, irredeemably corrupted and, as a result, he has paid a very heavy price – and quite rightly to."