A police inspector responsible for disposing of seized drugs has gone on trial accused of stealing an estimated £700,000 worth of heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis from a police station store. Insp Keith Boots, 55, who worked for West Yorkshire Police in Bradford, is alleged to have exploited weaknesses in the drug destruction system to steal large quantities for supply to others.
Leeds Crown Court heard that when colleagues raided Boots's home in Bradford in December 2014, they found illegal drugs worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, including 11kg of cocaine in his washing machine. Paul Greaney QC, prosecuting, told the jury: 'What was found on the ground floor would have kept a 1970s rock star, as well as his band, entertained for weeks.'
Greaney said Boots, a police officer since 1990 and an inspector for more than 10 years, stole drugs from the stores he managed at Trafalgar House police station in Bradford city centre. The search of his home followed a colleague noticing a quantity of cocaine missing from the station store.
'What Keith Boots had been doing is as simple as it is wicked,' Greaney said. 'In a gross breach of trust, he had been exploiting weaknesses in the system for the destruction of controlled drugs in order to steal them.'
Boots is on trial with his son Ashley Boots, 29. Keith Boots denies four counts of theft, six counts of possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply, one count of possessing ammunition, three counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, one count of conspiracy to steal and one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Ashley Boots denies six counts of possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply, one count of possessing ammunition, three counts of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs, one count of conspiracy to steal and one count of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
The trial continues.
