Detective guilty over sale of seized drugs

Nicholas and Simon McFadden are estimated to have made around £600,000, which they spent on exotic holidays, designer clothing, jewellery, home improvements and private numberplates for their cars.

Nicholas McFadden, 38, was unanimously found guilty by a jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday of three charges of the theft of cocaine, cannabis and heroin while working with the Organised Crime Group in West Yorkshire and of conspiracy to supply it.

He was found not guilty of two further charges of stealing amphetamine and conspiring to supply that drug and had already pleaded guilty to a charge of money laundering.

His debt collector brother Simon, 41, was found guilty on the same three conspiracy charges and also acquitted on the amphetamine conspiracy.

He was also convicted of money laundering, a charge which 
his wife Karen had already admitted.

The jury heard Nicholas McFadden’s dishonesty came to light after his bank alerted the police about deposits being made through cash machines.

When police searched his home they found £160,000 in cash in his garage and £6,000 in his performance car.

Paul Greaney QC, prosecuting, told the jury investigation of the brothers’ finances showed they had “spent heavily but made so much money they didn’t know what to do with it”.

Nicholas McFadden lied to colleagues that his wife had been diagnosed with cancer and that they had received a critical illness payment to deflect suspicions about his sudden spending.

He also later told his wife Clair, a teacher, he had made lots of money on overtime and his police pension was kicking in.

The father-of-one, who rekindled a “strong friendship” with his former partner – a police officer called Tanya Strangeway – gave her more than £13,000 in cash, £10,000 of which was giftwrapped in bundles of £10s and £20s, and bought her an Audi car, claiming he had a windfall after selling his house.

He later told police he had made money by running an illegal business selling steroids and claimed to have found up to £500,000 in a house in Harehills from a drug dealer’s secret cash stash.

He also told detective he had found bags of cash in a ditch by the M62.

When Simon McFadden’s back-to-back terrace home was searched, police found mobile phones that contained messages about drug deals, the court heard.

Nicholas McFadden had £430,000 in cash and Simon McFadden had a further £160,000 which could not be traced to any legitimate source.

Simon McFadden had spent “extravagant” amounts in the casino and on designer clothes.

He also bought his wife Karen a personalised number plate for her Mazda MX5 sports car which read M2 SXY.

He claimed he had won at the casino in what he called “an extremely good run of luck” when he had actually lost more than £8,800.

Originally a special constable, Nicholas McFadden joined the police as a probationer in 2000, later serving in the specialist drugs team at Killingbeck police station before moving to Holbeck and then the Organised Crime Group in 2007 as a detective.