A former Derbyshire Constabulary detective and exhibits officer has been jailed for stealing £85,000 of seized criminal cash from her force's safe while investigating high-level drugs gangs. Michelle Kirsty Reason, 54, began siphoning off cash in January 2022, Derbyshire Police said, and spent it on a car, holidays and tickets to events.
On Monday, Reason admitted theft and misconduct in public office and was jailed for four years and two months at Derby Crown Court.
Breach of Trust
Temporary Derbyshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Michelle Shooter said: "Michelle Reason was placed in a position of trust as a Detective Constable. She broke the trust that we as a force put in her – and broke the trust that public puts in officers to conduct themselves in a right and proper way."
Reason told officers initially that the money was stolen to fund debts she had accrued. However, further work showed that she had spent money on a car, a holiday, and tickets to events.
Shooter added: "Officers and staff who find themselves in financial difficulty are duty bound to make that clear to the force, due to the potential risk that this poses to them around being improperly influenced or blackmailed. They are also able to access support and guidance from both their immediate line manager and the wider force.
"Instead, Reason used her position of trust to take that money – but it was clear that she did not simply take this money to satisfy those debts, but rather to fund a lifestyle that she would have been otherwise unable to achieve. Her actions are a disgrace. Individuals who are willing to act in such a way have no place in policing and we will do all we can to root them out and bring them to justice."
How the Theft Unfolded
The court heard Reason, of Buxton, in Derbyshire, was a police exhibits officer based in Ripley. From January 2022, Reason "began siphoning cash after she dealt with a large cash seizure in the region of £350,000." She initially stole £15,000 but told investigating officers that, once she found nobody had noticed, began taking money on a regular basis until she left the force in December 2025.
The force said: "However, officers then began to review the stored exhibits ahead of an upcoming court case, and began to question where the cash had gone. Knowing she had been caught out, Reason went to St Mary's Wharf police station to confess to taking the cash."
She gave a full account of the money that had been taken, even bringing with her the empty evidence bags that cash had been seized in, police said. At court Reason admitted taking £87,174.05, along with €1,620 and £114 worth of Albanian lek.
Legal Proceedings and Next Steps
A further hearing to discuss the case, under the Proceeds of Crime Act, has been listed for 9 April next year.
Malcolm McHaffie, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Michelle Reason stole money she was trusted to protect, exploiting her position for her own benefit and risked jeopardising the police’s efforts to catch criminals. Safeguarding evidence is essential to the integrity of criminal investigations, and her dishonesty was a serious betrayal of the standards the public rightly expects from its police officers."
