By Brian Smith

A FORMER Tayside Police officer who betrayed his public duty and his colleagues by passing information about drugs squad operations to a dealer, was sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.

William Mark Hosie (28), Clattowoods Drive, Dundee, admitted charges of neglecting his duty, attempting to pervert the course of justice and helping a criminal when he appeared on indictment at Dundee Sheriff Court on April 14.

Sheriff Tom Hughes told Hosie that the gravity of the offences he had committed was such that he did not believe the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment available to him was adequate and he was sending him to the High Court for sentence.

Lord Brailsford said yesterday, “I understand the sheriff’s reasoning behind that. This is undoubtedly a difficult case.

“It raises issues of considerable sensitivity and it is a matter that is unusual for the court. Fortunately cases of this sort are rare.”

Addressing Hosie, he said, “At the time when the offences were committed, you were a serving police officer, charged with the enforcement of law and order in Tayside.

“Whilst serving as a police officer, you attempted to assist a person, a criminal, in a way which in itself was criminal.”

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

He admitted that between March 15 and May 5 last year he passed confidential police information about pending and ongoing drug enforcement activity to Rudkin, with intent to assist him and others evade prosecution and he attempted 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 in police interviews with the intention of assisting him to evade prosecution and again attempted to pervert the course of justice.

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

Hosie resigned from the police after his arrest on May 11 last year.

Information before the court included details of the drugs squad operations that led officers to one of their own colleagues.

They were targeting a “Mr Big” in Dundee and discovered his association with Rudkin, now serving a three year jail term for being concerned in the supply of more than £25,000 worth of cocaine.

An analysis of Rudkin’s mobile phone records showed recent contact with Hosie, setting in motion an operation aimed at the rotten apple in the barrel.

Police attached Hosie to an operation against low level heroin dealers, carefully managing the information available to him, but allowing him enough to work out the links between the operation he was on and the connection to Mr Big and his friend Rudkin.

Telephone billing showed Hosie and Rudkin had been in contact with each other later that very day.

Tayside Police professional standards department were given permission to bug one of their own cars.

Hosie was ordered to join the raid on his friend and was allocated the car with the hidden listening device.

Twice, over the next few hours, situations were engineered where Hosie and Rudkin were left alone in the car and their conversations provided the evidence that sent Hosie to jail.

Lord Brailsford referred to those conversations in detail, noting Hosie had told Rudkin he had not had enough time to warn him of the raid, he asked about drugs in the house and referred to previous conversations about the police operations.

When Hosie is told about there being more drugs in the loft at Rudkin’s mother’s house, Hosie says, “he does not care about that because police do not have a warrant for the mother’s house.”

He then tells Rudkin what to say in police interviews and asks him if he has deleted information about a text concerning the police operations from his mobile phone.

Police also heard Rudkin being asked about the code name he used for Hosie’s phone number on his mobile.

Told it was Don Beech, the name of the corrupt officer on the long running police series The Bill, Hosie gave an unprintable response.

Lord Brailsford said, “On the basis of that material, it seems clear to me, beyond peradventure, you were attempting to assist the criminal Rudkin in evading, or at least minimising, involvement in criminal activities.

“This is very serious indeed, a gross breach of trust in the discharge of your duties as a police officer.”

However, he continued, there were “significant factors in mitigation.”

The judge said Hosie had been of previous good character, had been commended for his actions in a violent incident and the court had before it references “provided by a significant number of people, all of high standing in the community.”

At previous hearings the court heard Hosie was prominent in the Boys’ Brigade movement, he had been school captain and had been made McManus Young Citizen of the Year for his charitable work.

He turned his back on a career in professional football to join the police, as other members of his wider family had before him and had an ambition to work in the drugs squad.

Because of his nature, he had not abandoned the friends from his childhood in Mid Craigie, where his parents still live.

Although their lifestyles ended in radically different directions, he remained “inextricably linked” to Rudkin, who had been a friend since they started primary school together.

Lord Brailsford said, “I am inclined to accept that much of what you did was misplaced loyalty, trying to assist a friend who was in serious trouble.”

Sentencing had delayed by a disagreement between the Crown and the defence when counsel Tim Niven-Smith started to tell the court of what he said was a “vaulting ambition” by Hosie to further his police career.

In those circumstances he believed he might be able to build trust in his long-term associate Raymond Rudkin and use it to turn him into a source of information.

Mr Niven-Smith suggested to the court the approach being used by Hosie was “give a little get a little.”

He was interrupted by advocate depute Alistair Brown who said, “The Crown do not accept this accused was trying to recruit Raymond Rudkin as a covert human intelligence source.”

He said Hosie, as an experienced police officer, would have known this was strictly regulated and he would not have been given permission at that stage of his career.

If the defence was to persist with such a suggestion he told the court a proof in mitigation would be required.

Lord Brailsford agreed, telling counsel, “You have suggested a situation that is a little implausible, to put it as neutrally as I can.”

The judge adjourned the court to give both sides a chance to resolve their differences.

When they returned Mr Niven-Smith said he was not suggesting Hosie was acting on instructions or that he was trying to formally recruit Rudkin as a grass.

As he had told the social worker preparing reports, he hoped to use this method to further his own career by gathering intelligence.

“On reflection he realises he was not in a position to accomplish this,” Mr Niven- Smith added.

Lord Brailsford asked counsel if, put bluntly, Hosie was telling the social worker lies.

Mr Niven-Smith said his client realised it was impossible to reconcile what he had told the social worker preparing reports for the court with the agreed Crown version of events.

He accepted Lord Brailsford’s suggestion that they simply ignore the suggestion that Hosie was trying to recruit Rudkin in some way.

The court heard Hosie has been kept at the segregation unit at Perth Prison since he was remanded in custody, along with some of the most violent men in the Scottish Prison system, for his own safety, after receiving death threats.