Police chiefs across Britain are facing mounting pressure to completely overhaul their recruitment vetting processes following a series of damaging scandals involving officers forming inappropriate relationships with serious criminals.
A Pattern of Betrayal
Campaigners have told the Daily Mail that current screening procedures are failing to prevent vulnerable young officers from joining forces only to become embroiled in disgraceful conduct that undermines public trust in policing.
The concerns have been amplified by the recent case of former West Yorkshire Police officer Maryam Ilyas, who received a lifetime ban this week after passing sensitive information to her drug dealer boyfriend. The 20-year-old trainee officer accessed confidential police computer systems on three separate occasions between March and May 2025 to gather intelligence about ongoing operations targeting her criminal partner.
Despite resigning before her disciplinary hearing on Wednesday, the panel determined that Ilyas would have been immediately dismissed had she still been serving. The officer's links to the drug dealer only emerged when he was arrested in June, with investigators discovering incriminating messages between the pair discussing drugs and showing pictures of money.
Systemic Failures Exposed
Catherine Hankinson, West Yorkshire Police's former deputy chief constable, ruled that the evidence indicated an existing relationship continuing until July 2025. She described Ilyas's conduct as repeated, sustained and intentional, noting that the officer had failed to declare the relationship during her recruitment in June 2024 and later claimed to be unaware of her boyfriend's criminal history.
This case represents just one of several recent incidents where police officers have developed inappropriate relationships with criminals, with similar scandals also emerging within the prison service.
Former police officer Norman Brennan, founder of the Victims Of Crime Trust charity, expressed profound concern about the growing trend. He stated: This is unacceptable and it seems like it's happening more and more these days, in both the police and the prison services. Such behaviour undermines the whole criminal justice system and also erodes public trust.
Mr Brennan further questioned why Ilyas hadn't faced criminal investigation in addition to disciplinary proceedings, emphasising that the vetting is letting people through that should never be in the police, especially when there are links to the criminal underworld.
Widespread Corruption Cases
The problem extends far beyond West Yorkshire Police. In Greater Manchester, officer Choni Kenny was jailed for three years and nine months after being filmed passionately kissing inmate Josh Whelan while still in uniform at Forest Bank prison.
Kenny, who joined Greater Manchester Police in 2020, passed information to Whelan and supplied him with 20 mobile phones to continue running his criminal enterprise from behind bars. When that relationship ended, she began associating with another criminal, Rahim Mottley, who was under investigation by the same force.
The corrupt officer warned Mottley about an impending firearms raid and promised to identify police informants, searching force systems for information after his arrest. Her crimes were ultimately exposed when CCTV footage revealed her intimate encounter with Whelan in the prison waiting area.
In the West Midlands, former PC Lorna Pennycook was found to have accessed police systems 200 times to supply intelligence to her criminal boyfriend Anthony Kennedy, described as a professional crook with 18 convictions for 41 offences.
Pennycook, who served as an acting sergeant before joining the organised crime and gangs team, attempted to cover her tracks by instructing Kennedy to delete their messages and requesting a burner phone. She later received a four-year prison sentence after admitting misconduct in a public office.
Other concerning cases include:
- Carly Fay, an aspiring Metropolitan Police officer who assisted her drug dealer boyfriend in selling cocaine and ecstasy at Creamfields music festival
- Caitlin Howarth, who had an affair with her married superior Chief Superintendent Daniel Greenwood while also dating drug kingpin Joseph Shaw
- Natalie Mottram, a police intelligence analyst who leaked details of the EncroChat operation to criminal associate Jonathan Kay
These repeated breaches have sparked serious questions about the effectiveness of current vetting procedures and whether sufficient safeguards exist to identify potential vulnerabilities in new recruits before they gain access to sensitive police information and systems.
