Former Norfolk Policeman Sent to Prison

8 July 2010, 14:25 | Updated: 8 July 2010, 14:37

A former Norfolk Police Officer has been sent to prison for three years.

Dominic de Souza, 31, from Attleborough in Norfolk was found guilty by a jury of nine offences of willful misconduct in public office at Norwich Crown Court.

He had denied all the charges against him.

The offences happened between October 2007 and August 2008 when he issued cannabis warnings and cautions for possessing weapons to teenagers under eighteen in the Wymondham area to increase the number of crimes he was detecting.

No one under the age of eighteen should be given cannabis warnings and so De Souza changed their dates of birth on his paperwork to make them older so he could issue the warnings.

In his defence he said he had made mistakes in filling out his forms.

Judge Peter Jacobs said 'People have been criminalised and wholesale damage done to confidence in the police force. You falsified evidence, gave false information and forged signatures, criminalising young people who in some cases had done nothing wrong.'