WPc accused of abusing her job to help crooks

A WOMAN police constable appeared in court today charged with burglary and misconduct in public office after she allegedly abused her position to help her friends commit crimes.

Kieley Patton, 26, is said to have passed on confidential information from police computer systems to boyfriend Solomon Henry and others.

She is also accused of helping a friend to steal thousands of pounds from a shop by listening to traffic on her police radio to warn him if police were on his tail.

Patton, wearing a baggy cream jumper, appeared in the dock alongside Henry, 25, at City of Westminster magistrates' court this morning.

She is charged with three counts of misfeasance while serving as an officer of public justice between January last year and this June.

As well as passing on sensitive police records and other confidential information, she is alleged to have assisted Henry in obtaining and using illegal class C drugs and helping him get car insurance by misrepresentation.

Patton is also charged with one count of burglary over a raid on the World Airways internet café in Wembley in which £4,500 in cash and international phone cards was stolen in April last year. Henry is not alleged to have been involved in this burglary.

Henry is accused of aiding and abetting misconduct in public office and a charge of illegally obtaining confidential personal information under the Data Protection Act.

Patton, of Holloway, and Henry, of Hornsey, spoke only to confirm their names and addresses in the five-minute hearing.

They were both released on unconditional bail until a hearing at Southwark crown court on 2 January.