By Brian Smith

MOBILE PHONE records from one of the targets of a major drugs operation led police to one of their own colleagues, Dundee Sheriff Court was told yesterday.

Listening devices were hidden in one of their own drugs squad cars and the suspect officer was attached to the operation to see if he would try to help a boyhood friend who was about to be raided.

Officers heard the criminal target tell their colleague his codename in his mobile phone memory was “Don Beech,” the name of the corrupt character on the long-running television series The Bill.

Former police officer William Mark Hosie (28), Clattowoods Drive, admitted three charges of neglecting duty, attempting to pervert the course of justice and helping a criminal when he appeared on indictment before Sheriff Tom Hughes yesterday.

Hosie admitted that on May 5 last year, being a public official, namely a Tayside Police constable, he wilfully neglected his duty, having learned there was a quantity of cocaine in a loft at a house, he failed to pass this information to other police officers and told the other man that police did not have a search warrant for the premises.

He admitted that between March 15 and May 5 last year he passed confidential police information regarding ongoing and impending police drug enforcement activity to his boyhood friend Raymond Rudkin, all with intent to assist him and other persons to evade prosecution under the Misuse of Drugs Act, with intent and attempt to pervert the course of justice.

He admitted that on May 5 last year, in a police vehicle, being in possession of privileged information, he provided advice to Rudkin on how to answer questions at a forthcoming interview with police, all with the intent to assist him to evade prosecution on serious charges under the Misuse of Drugs Act with intent to pervert the course of justice and he attempted to pervert the course of justice.

A plea of not guilty to a charge that Hosie was concerned in the supply of the class A drug cocaine between December 1, 2006, and May 5 last year was accepted by the Crown.

Hosie had resigned from Tayside Police shortly after his arrest on May 11.

Sheriff Tom Hughes told Hosie, “Having listened to the full extent of these offences, it is truly shocking.

“What I have heard are the most serious offences to be heard in a sheriff court.”

Sheriff Hughes remanded Hosie in custody to May 12 for reports, despite pleas from counsel to allow him bail because of the potential jeopardy to the former police officer if he was remanded.

Depute fiscal Keith Robertson told the court Hosie joined the police in May 1999 and served in Perth until October 2005, when he transferred to Dundee, first at Downfield and then at the Maryfield police offices.

He was brought up in Mid Craigie and his parents still live there. Throughout this time he had contact with his friend from nursery school days Raymond Rudkin, now serving a three-year jail term after admitting being concerned in the supply of more than £25,000 worth of cocaine.

The fiscal explained in detail how criminals seek to exploit corrupt police officers to give them an advantage over not only the honest officers but also their criminal competitors, the kind of information they sought and how police officers were drawn into a criminal web.

Mr Robertson said, “In January 2007 police instigated Operation Navigator to investigate the criminal network of a person who was suspected of being a primary drug dealer.

“Intelligence provided information that the suspected drug dealer was organising the distribution of quantities of cocaine and other class A drugs.

“No publicity was given to the general public regarding that operation.

“During Operation Navigator reliable intelligence proved that the suspect was supplying a close and trusted associate, subsequently identified as Rudkin, with quantities of cocaine on a regular basis.

“Telephone billing and analysis also identified that Rudkin had recent contact with the accused (Hosie).”

Rudkin’s phone records prompted the police’s professional standards department to begin their own operation—codenamed Adrastea, the smallest of Jupiter’s inner moons—targeting Hosie.

That turned up records from March showing further contact between Hosie and his boyhood friend.

Between April 24 and May 5 the drugs squad started another operation, called Perdition, aimed at lower level heroin dealers and they decided to allocate Hosie to the Perdition team.

Through this Hosie learned of the links between the Navigator and Perdition operations and the connection of his friend Rudkin to the top level dealer.

Mr Robertson said, “Subsequent telephone billing showed that the accused and Rudkin had been in contact with each other later that same day.

“It was suspected this contact involved the accused passing details of Navigator to Rudkin.”

The professional standards department got permission to set up a listening device in one of the drugs squad’s own cars before they raided Rudkin’s home.

Hosie was one of the officers detailed to take part in the raid and was part of a Perdition briefing at 8.10 am on the morning of May 5.

He was accompanied in the bugged car by a detective sergeant to Rudkin’s Colinton Place home and during the journey Hosie volunteered that he knew Rudkin from his school days and that he may have been in his house once.

He added, “He did not know Rudkin was involved in any way with drugs,” the fiscal told the court.

As the raid began, Rudkin was taken out of his house, put in the bugged car with Hosie, while the detective sergeant made an excuse to leave them alone together.

Mr Robertson continued, “The accused was heard to tell Rudkin that he did not have enough time to warn him that police were attending at his home address with a search warrant.

“The accused asks Rudkin where ‘it’ is—‘it’ being cocaine. Rudkin tells the accused he has the cocaine in a bag in his house.

“The accused asks Rudkin what his name is stored as on Rudkin’s mobile phone. Rudkin replies, ‘Don Beech’ —the corrupt police officer from The Bill. The accused is alarmed by this ...

“The accused then tells Rudkin, ‘This Navigator thing I told you about last week.’ That clearly implies the accused had previously discussed with Rudkin information about the Navigator operation.”

The bug in the car goes on to record a conversation about the location of the drugs before Hosie tells Rudkin that police are trying to connect him with the suspected primary drug dealer that is being targeted by Operation Navigator.

Hosie is heard to name the suspect.

Rudkin then asks Hosie what he should do and the one time police officer is heard suggesting a means by which Rudkin might persuade police that he was a high end user rather than someone involved in dealing.

Rudkin is then taken to police headquarters when the detective sergeant rejoins the car but, once again, in the car park outside the charge room, he engineers a situation where Rudkin and Hosie are left alone in the car.

Listening officers hear Rudkin tell Hosie about the amount of drugs in his own home and where they are hidden.

Rudkin tells him they are in a holdall and Hosie responds, “That holdall that I telt you to get rid of.”

It is in this conversation that Rudkin reveals he has a greater quantity of cocaine hidden in his mother’s loft.

Mr Robertson said, “The accused replies that police can’t go to his mother’s house as they do not have a warrant. He advises Rudkin not to mention his mother or father to police.

“He advises Rudkin to say he possesses drugs in those quantities because it is cheaper and he is suffering from depression.

“The accused informs Rudkin that the reason for him (Rudkin) being targeted has most probably come from a ‘CHIS,’ an acronym for covert human intelligence source,” the fiscal explained.

Hosie is heard saying there is no involvement from the force intelligence bureau.

When Rudkin asks what a CHIS is, the accused replies, “A grass, a registered grass.”

Confronted by transcripts of the two bugged conversations both Rudkin and Hosie, when he is arrested some days later, admit their involvement.

Hosie at first tries to downplay his role in the three interviews after he is detained, eventually gradually conceding more and more information.

He insists he would have passed on the information from Rudkin but did not have time to tell anyone as it was happening.

He said, “I have got a lovely house, a lovely wife.

“I have got a career that looked as if it was going places.

“I have worked bloody hard when I am at my work and I certainly wouldn’t destroy all that for not getting any benefit out of anything at all.

“I would understand it if I was receiving £5000, £10,000 or £20,000, or anything like that. I’ll give you access to my bank account.”

He adds, “Unless there is some benefit to me of hundreds of thousands of pounds, I wouldn’t put my career on the line—I wouldn’t work myself down to the bone trying to do it.”

Eventually, in the final interview, as more and more of the case against him is revealed, Mr Robertson said Hosie became very upset.

“My dad’s a good man, he wouldn’t hurt anybody,” he told the interviewers, the fiscal said, explaining that this was the first of references to his parents and family, implying he had been drawn in because they were being threatened.

Mr Robertson said police later interviewed his father who said they had come under no pressure as a result of their son’s occupation.

This was the sole point at which Hosie betrayed any reaction, leaning forward and looking down while his father’s statement was read to the court.

Asking for Hosie to be released on bail, advocate Tim Niven-Smith said his client had an exemplary record in the police until the offence which brought him before the court.