DEALER 'SPLIT DRUGS CASH WITH POLICEMAN LOVER'

A drugs dealer told the Old Bailey yesterday that she split proceeds from
narcotics deals with a police detective who became her lover.

They spent nights together in luxury hotels - once using the name Bart
Simpson - went to the Canary Islands for a holiday to celebrate her
birthday and exchanged expensive presents, said Evelyn Fleckney, 43. When
she found she was expecting a baby by the officer, Robert Clark, she had an
abortion, she said.

Clark, 37, was a member of a specialist group of regional crime squad
officers based in south-east London from 1991 to 1995, the court heard. He
"abused his position" when he was the handler of Fleckney, his registered
informant, Orlando Pownall, prosecuting, has alleged.

Clark and another officer, Christopher Drury, used information provided by
her to retain and sell a proportion of any drugs seized in resulting police
investigations, Mr Pownall said. They involved two other detectives on the
squad, Peter Lawson and Roger Pearce.

Clark, Drury, 37, and Lawson, 53, all suspended from duty, and Pearce, 52,
who retired in 1997 after nearly 30 years' service, have all variously
denied acts tending or intended to pervert the course of justice. Clark and
Drury have denied charges alleging they conspired to supply cannabis,
cocaine and raw opium.

The jury heard that Fleckney is serving a 15-year sentence imposed in March
last year. It was stated then that she was a professional drugs trafficker.

She told the jury yesterday that after her arrest in 1990 for another
matter she became a police informer and met Clark. After she received a
suspended sentence for the 1990 offence, they had stayed together in a
Chelsea hotel. "Clark slept with me that night," she said. "He slept with
me again. I provided him with information."

On one occasion Clark told her that some cannabis had been "left over" from
a job they had done and asked her to sell it, she said. There were a few
bars which she alleged she sold for about pounds 400 each. The proceeds
were split. "There were a lot of officers and just me, so we shared it in
that sort of proportion. At some stage I must have known the money was not
just for him."

She said she had sold more drugs later - again sharing the proceeds "with
Bob and he shared it with whoever. I kept just a proportion. I just did
what he said really."

Fleckney agreed she had a small amount of opium in her possession in 1994,
but "someone turned the cooker on and it got burnt. I threw it away. I may
have told Bob about it, I do not remember."

Once she gave him a glass coffee table as a present. For a birthday she
gave him a South African stone costing pounds 200. He had bought her
jewellery gifts.

Alun Jones QC, defending Clark, suggested she was giving evidence to get
her sentence reduced by five years. Fleckney replied: "No."

The trial continues.