Former Police Officer Ordered To Repay £85,000

A former police officer was today ordered to pay back more than £85,000 after he admitted money laundering, police said.

Darren Graysmark, 44, served with Sussex Police for 23 years but resigned on the day he entered his guilty plea in July.

He was jailed for 16 months when he appeared at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent a month later.

After the sentencing, financial investigators from the force examined all the evidence compiled about Graysmark's financial affairs and began the confiscation process under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Appearing at the same court today, Graysmark, of Coney Furlong, Peacehaven, East Sussex, was served with a #85,671.55 confiscation order, a spokesman for Sussex Police said.

He was arrested after officers from his own force's serious and organised crime unit pulled his car over and found cocaine with an estimated street value of #148,000 inside on April 8 last year.

Graysmark, who was working as a police constable at the force's Newhaven Port unit, was not in the vehicle at the time. It was being driven by his boyfriend, Darren Simpson.

The detectives' inquiries led them to the home the two men shared where they seized a quantity of financial correspondence and #12,000 in cash.

Graysmark pleaded guilty to a charge of money laundering a total of #80,921 over a five-year period up to April last year at the hearing on July 26.

His arrest was part of a wider investigation into alleged drugs trafficking.

In October, Simpson, also 44, pleaded guilty to being concerned with three other men in a conspiracy to supply 6.6lb (3kg) of cocaine, and was sentenced to six years and three months in prison.

Today he too was served with a confiscation order, to the amount of #21,920.11.

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Paice said: "Darren Graysmark let himself, his colleagues and the public down, in knowingly benefiting from organised crime.

"This confiscation order sends a clear message that not only will we pursue offenders regardless of occupation, but that we will also seek to strip them of their criminal profits.''