Corrupt British detective who stole more than £1m of seized drugs and sold it back on the street to fund 'champagne lifestyle' with TWO women is jailed for 23 years

A corrupt detective who sold drugs seized by police so he could lavish gifts on another woman behind his wife’s back has been jailed for 23 years.

Nicholas McFadden splashed out on treats for his ex-fiancee after making £600,000 selling class A drugs confiscated from criminals.

He had helped himself to more than £1million of heroin, cocaine and cannabis by exploiting ‘slack’ police procedures.

The detective constable, who is married with a child, had an affair with fellow officer Tanya Strangeway, 34, in 2007.

After they became ‘close again’ in 2011, he used money from drug dealing to shower her with gifts including £10,000 in cash and a new Audi.

He also refurbished his family home in Castleford, West Yorkshire, installing a new kitchen and building an orangery.

McFadden, 38, and his brother Simon, 41, raided drugs earmarked for destruction at West Yorkshire Police.

The pair spent the proceeds on luxury lifestyles of lavish holidays, designer clothes and champagne.

Simon, a debt collector, also bought pricy paintings and indulged a bizarre passion for ‘expensive sausages’.

Yesterday the pair were jailed at Leeds Crown Court after being convicted of drug dealing and money laundering.

Judge Tom Bayliss said: ‘We as a community are entitled to expect the very highest standards from our police officers. ‘Without that ability to trust our police, society cannot function properly. You undermined that trust.’ He added: ‘Your motive was simple greed.’

During the five-week trial, the court heard that Nicholas McFadden, who worked for the specialist Organised Crime Group, ‘spent heavily’.

When colleagues noticed he had begun to wear designer clothes and expensive watches, he lied and said his wife Clair, an assistant headmistress, had received an insurance pay-out after being ill with cancer. He travelled first-class to London and Egypt and bought a private number plate for Clair, 38, who had no idea of his crimes.

She told the court: ‘He told me the money came from the overtime he was doing and said he’d remortgaged his property. ‘I accepted what he said because he was my husband and a police officer. He thanked me and said it was all down to me organising him.’

He also lavished gifts on Miss Strangeway, his former fiancee, who he had been seeing behind his wife’s back before she became pregnant in 2007.

She told the court they had become ‘close’ again in 2011 when he texted her to say he wanted to give her a present.

The court heard police first became aware of Nicholas McFadden’s suspicious activity in the middle of 2011 when his bank alerted them to the fact he had deposited a total of £30,000 in small payments into cash machines over three months. When they raided his home, they found banknotes stuffed into sacks in his garage and more hidden around his house and car.

At Simon’s home, they found mobile phones containing messages about drug deals.

Simon and his wife Karen, a medical secretary, had spent money on extravagant shopping trips, splashing out £11,000 in Harvey Nichols and over £2,000 in Vivienne Westwood.

In total, Nicholas McFadden had £430,000 and Simon McFadden had a further £160,000 which could not be traced to any legitimate source.

The court heard Nicholas McFadden had taken the drugs from a hold which contained those recovered from three major police operations.

Nicholas McFadden was convicted of three counts of theft, two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs heroin and cocaine and one of conspiracy to supply class B drug cannabis. He had already admitted money laundering.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Wallen, of West Yorkshire Police, said: ‘Some police officers, Nicholas McFadden’s former colleagues, had risked their lives to take drugs off the streets and he, along with his brother, was putting them back there. ‘He has betrayed his friends and his former colleagues.’

Original report here




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