A senior North Wales Police detective has been jailed for eight months after accessing her force's computer logs unlawfully. Emma Gardner had been a detective inspector with North Wales Police when she tapped into files on an investigation she was not part of.
Offence details
A court previously heard she had passed information to a man who had been a bouncer when she was previously a uniformed officer at Rhyl. They had become Facebook friends and had sex twice.
Prosecutor Andrew Scott said the detective had accessed logs involving "a relatively minor complaint" and "tittle-tattle," relating to her male friend, which was being dealt with by uniformed officers. The 47-year-old told the friend she "had her uses".
After the offending came to light, she was suspended from work and charged. She was convicted after a trial of causing a computer to perform a function to secure unauthorised access to a program/data, contrary to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and also accessing 13 digital occurrences linked to a friend without a policing purpose on 47 occasions between January 20 and September 22, 2022.
Court proceedings
She resigned from the force. Today a judge at Caernarfon Crown Court told her: "Even detective inspectors are not above the law." North Wales Police said they did not have a custody image of the former officer.
Andrew Scott, prosecuting, today said Gardner accessed police computer records of a management system between January and September 2022. It was without a policing purpose nor with permission of the police data controller. The information was on files relating to a man and three women. A police audit had brought the offences to light.
Gardner didn't declare her association with the friend as required by her employer, said Mr Scott. She didn't speak to any police officer involved in the various investigations, other than once. She had been of previous good character and in a position of trust and responsibility.
Defence and sentencing
Chloe Fordham, defending, said Gardner, of Abergele Road, Old Colwyn, had had a 26-year career. She had latterly been involved in 13 child deaths cases over eleven months - including visiting scenes and post mortem examinations - as well as homicides and suicides. She was diagnosed with complex post traumatic stress disorder in January 2022.
She said Gardner maintained she had been pursuing police purposes when accessing the files. However, after "reflecting" Gardner accepts she showed "poor judgement". Ms Fordham said the defendant had been "somewhat emotionally vulnerable". She added Gardner had been "susceptible to flattery from [the friend] and beholden to the emotional support she was getting from him and then acted in a way that blurred the boundaries of (her) professional and private lives".
Her policing achievements are "all for nought because her 26-year career in the police is now over". Not only is there the "embarrassment" but there are also the financial implications, said the defence barrister.
The judge His Honour Timothy Petts noted Gardner had looked at files of four individuals. Gardner should have declared her "close friendship" with the man to North Wales Police's anti-corruption unit but she did not. The judge said Gardner claimed only "intimate" relationships should be declared but the judge branded this a lie.
He said police computers can hold extremely sensitive information and undermining them can have "potentially devastating consequences for public justice". He said she had let down herself and her police colleagues and a "deterrent" sentence of immediate custody was needed.
Jailing Gardner for eight months, he said: "I make it clear to everyone that even detective inspectors are not above the law." She will probably serve a third before being released on licence.
Reactions after sentencing
Speaking after sentencing, Deputy Chief Constable Nigel Harrison said: "Former officer Emma Gardner has now been sentenced by the court. Her behaviour was not only criminal, but far from the standards we expect from our officers."
"She was suspended during the investigation, and following her conviction she was subject to misconduct procedures where the Chief Constable determined had she not resigned, she would have been dismissed and has been placed on the barred list so she can never serve within policing again. She should have known better, and she breached our trust and that of the public."
Leighton Mawer of the Crown Prosecution Service said after the sentencing: "Emma Gardner abused the trust that was placed in her as a police officer. Police records contain sensitive information and must only be accessed for policing purposes. All police officers are held to high standards, but this officer’s actions fell below those standards. The strong evidence presented by the Crown Prosecution Service resulted in the jury’s guilty verdict."
