A WEST Mercia Police officer who secretly hacked into colleagues’ computers has not lost his job, but is facing a disciplinary hearing, it has emerged.

On Friday Aled Lewis, a 34-year-old constable based in Droitwich, was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to do 200 hours’ unpaid community work by a judge at Worcester Crown Court.

The court was told that Lewis had bought a key logger on the internet and attached it to computers at the police station, which enabled him to access the emails of Sergeant Lloyd Buffery and Police Constable Sarah Cook.

Lewis, of Penmanor, Finstall, Bromsgrove, admitted charges of causing a computer to perform a function to secure or enable unauthorised access to a program or data between July and October, 2011.

The court was told that Lewis had targeted personal information belonging to his colleagues, including 3,327 e-mails and Facebook accounts. There had been no misuse of police information or records.

During the court case it was said that Lewis had lost his job, but following the hearing a spokesman for West Mercia Police said Lewis’s resignation had not been accepted, although he remained suspended from duty.

The force issued a statement which said: “PC Lewis pleaded guilty to five offences of computer misuse and has been sentenced at Worcester Crown Court. We can confirm that the officer committed these offences while as a serving police officer with West Mercia Police.”

Chief Inspector Jerry Reakes-Williams, of the force’s professional standards department, said: “PC Lewis has been suspended from duty throughout this detailed and protracted investigation.

“The computer misuse involved the unauthorised access of colleagues’ computer accounts and the sending of emails which had the potential to incriminate colleagues in criminal offences.

“The communities of West Mercia have every right to be able to trust officers and we expect our officers and staff to uphold the high standards of integrity. The vast majority of our officers and staff are honest, hardworking and dedicated individuals who demonstrate their commitment to serving the public on a daily basis.

“The officer will now be the subject of an internal gross misconduct consideration and he will remain suspended pending the outcome”.

  • We previously reported that Lewis had pleaded guilty to four not the five charges of computer misuse referred to by the police. This was based on the information given to us at the time.