DRUG CASE INFORMERS SHOWN LENIENCY BY JUDGE

A drug dealer and a crooked detective who became key informants in a
Scotland Yard corruption case were rewarded yesterday with lenient
sentences.

The two were jailed by the Old Bailey after admitting 37 offences.
Evelyn Fleckney, a drug dealer and the lover of a detective in the
squad, was given 41/2 years and Detective Constable Neil Putnam was
given 3 years 11 months.

Mr Justice Blofeld told them that they would each have been jailed for
up to 14 years but for their confessions and the help they had given
to the police.

The judge attacked senior police officers for failing to stop a
detective squad in South London running out of control. He said: "If
police turn to crime, then the whole fabric of society is affected."

The two gave evidence against officers from the unit, now disbanded,
who were accused of recycling seized cannabis over a five-year period.

The judge said: "It is with regret I have to say that the squad was
not well run. Supervision was not what it should be and supervisors
were not themselves adequately supervised. The approach of the squad
was that they could do what they wanted."

The court was told that Fleckney admitted offences including supplying
an unnamed officer with cocaine at a party attended by police and
selling heroin supplied by another unnamed officer.

As well as drug offences, Putnam admitted that he was involved in
stealing drink recovered during police raids, ignoring thefts by other
officers and taking pounds 1,200 found in an investigation.

Fleckney, who is already serving 15 years for dealing in amphetamines,
Ecstasy and cocaine, admitted 21 offences. Putnam admitted 16 offences.

Fleckney and Putnam, who turned from a violent drunkard to a
born-again Christian, are regarded as unique informants in Scotland
Yard's anti-corruption drive. Fleckney is the only woman informant in
a British prison and Putnam has agreed to advise Scotland Yard on
combating corruption.

In evidence, Fleckney said that she twice became pregnant by Detective
Constable Clark. They began a relationship in 1991 after he became her
handler as an informer. She alerted him to drug caches held by
colleagues in the underworld and police seized them in raids. The
police then handed over the drugs and she sold them, sharing all the
proceeds with officers.

Fleckney said that she provided information for Constable Clark that
led to the seizure of cannabis dropped from an aircraft in 1991. The
police recovered drugs that she then sold. Putnam, who had just joined
the unit, was given pounds 300 for turning a blind eye. Fleckney
received a pounds 6,000 reward that she shared with Constable Clark.

Orlando Pownall, for the prosecution, told the court that Putnam
joined a squad where "the ethos was all for one and one for all".
Investigations into the unit started in 1996 after a complaint from a
victim. It resumed in 1998 and Putnam was suspended from duty.

He then decided to make a confession to police. If he had not
co-operated, he might never have been charged. Fleckney did not know
him and could not incriminate him.