MERSEYSIDE POLICE SERGEANT CONVICTED OVER LINKS TO ENCRYPTED CRIME NETWORK

Temporary Sergeant Daniel Hughes, a 20-year veteran of Merseyside Police, was convicted after maintaining long-established connections with individuals involved in serious organised crime using the encrypted EncroChat platform. Hughes socialised with criminal contacts, attended race meetings with them and took holidays abroad in their company, whilst concealing these relationships from his employer. Manchester Crown Court heard that between 2016 and 2021, Hughes conducted repeated unauthorised searches on the police national computer and Merseyside Police's dedicated network, Niche, to look up intelligence on individuals including Steven Noone, Phillip Lam, Anthony Harrison and Frederick Connolly.

Prosecutor Laura Barbour told the court that Hughes accessed restricted intelligence reports concerning Noone, who was under investigation as part of a large-scale fraud operation involving stolen credit cards. Both reports established that Hughes did not directly disclose the contents of confidential files to his criminal contacts or gain financially from his database searches. However, the court heard he had shared snippets of information regarding other active cases within a WhatsApp group conversation.

A crown court judge acknowledged Hughes as a diligent and courageous officer who sustained serious injuries in two violent incidents while on duty. The judge stated that whilst misconduct in a public office was not charged, Hughes's personal relationships with criminals created a position where conflict could arise and socialising with such individuals "must have been apparent to you as wrong". Hughes was not charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act or other statutory offences related to his intelligence searches.