Pay-off for the drug addict detective

A policewoman has revealed how she had a £500-a-week drug habit while working in a busy London CID office.

The trainee detective arrested addicts on the street while taking heroin and crack on her days off.

After she admitted her habit, the Metropolitan Police agreed to lend her £7,000 for a drug rehabilitation course. When that failed she retired on a £31,000 medical pay-off with a full pension.

The 37-year-old, who does not wish to be named, described how she fought her addiction in an interview with the Druglink charity magazine. She said: "I was leading two lives. I took the drugs in the evenings and on days off, never at work.

"I did feel hypocritical, arresting people for using crack and heroin.

But I think I dealt with them well. I could relate to them. They weren't just addicts, they were people."

She said she started using Class A drugs after being offered crack by friends in 1999 after breaking up with a long-term partner. Her only previous experience of drugs had been "an ecstasy pill or two" at weekends.

After her first experience with crack, she began using it regularly then starting taking heroin to cope with the after-effects.

She began spending heavily on drugs, about £2,000 a month on a monthly pay packet of £1,900.

She said: "I was able to handle it for about a year. I never once did anything illegal to pay for it at all. I got heavily in debt. I paid for most of it on Visa and with loans. Then I had to sell my house."

She finally went to the Met in June 2000, when the force introduced a policy to treat people who admitted their habit as a welfare issue rather than a crime.

She was able to return to work on condition she stayed behind the scenes. She suffered a relapse and the Met offered her a £7,000 loan for a residential course in Wiltshire.

She took up the offer, describing how she met several London Underground staff, including train drivers, on the course.

She went back on drugs after a few months, and this time a police psychologist recommended retirement on the grounds of depression and drug misuse.

A year later she was medically retired on a police pension with a £40,000 lump sum and £600 a month until she is 65. The Met challenged the figure arguing that she had "contributed to your own disablement". Eventually the case was settled, the officer agreeing to a £31,000 pay-off.

Today, the former police officer says she has her addiction under control and is starting a course in housing management.

She added: "The Met haven't considered what to do with people who have recovered. I knew of at least four officers in my station who were addicted to drugs."