A former drug addict who lost his job, marriage and went back to using heroin because of a "meddling" policeman has been awarded £4,000 damages by a judge.

Nigel Cross, 32, a self-confessed former heroin addict, took on Cleveland Police, alleging his life had been wrecked by the conduct of Detective Constable Dominic McGeehan.

Cross told a hearing at Teesside County Court how his life went downhill because of "gratuitous meddling" by the officer.

And yesterday Judge Judith Moir said she was satisfied the policeman had acted in a "high-handed, malicious and aggravating" way.

Cross was awarded £4,000 damages and loss of earnings and Cleveland Police were left with a further bill of around £28,000 in costs.

Mr Cross lost his job at a North Yorkshire food firm after the Cleveland officer contacted them and told them he was "a thief and a drug taker".

He said his life went "on a downward spiral" after he was told not to return to work at Stokesley-based Marlow Foods.

It had been the first real job he had had after a life of crime, his barrister Ian West told Middlesbrough County Court.

After losing that job, his marriage fell apart and he returned to his old habit of taking heroin, the court heard.

Mr West said it was their case that Det Con McGeehan had contacted Marlow Foods and had told them Mr Cross, of Cotswold Crescent, Billingham, was a thief who also took drugs, which he claimed resulted in him losing his job with the company in March, 2000.

Mr West said the Cleveland officer had "no business" contacting the firm in North Yorkshire: "It was a gratuitous piece of meddling designed to injure the claimant."

Mr Cross admitted that he had previously been in prison but maintained that he kept his head down after getting the job at Marlow Foods and there were no complaints about his work.

After losing his job, he said, he went back to using heroin, having become hooked on the drug while in prison.

He said: "If I had never got the sack from work, I would never have got back on the gear."

Peter Johnson, representing the Chief Constable of Cleveland, asked him if it was his assertion that DC McGeehan "has it in for you?".

Mr Cross replied: "He always has done.

"He has got something against me, always has had. He must have trampled through my house about ten times."

Barry Cross, the claimant's father, confirmed his son was off heroin when he was working, but "went downhill completely" after losing his job.

But Det Con McGeehan, giving evidence, denied acting out of "poisonous spite".

He insisted he was making "legitimate inquiries" to evaluate information given to him and felt he had dealt with the matter "sensitively".

He told the court: "I was trying to find out how good the information was." But Mr West said: "You were falling over yourself with enthusiasm to throw a big spanner in the works of Nigel Cross's life?" The officer replied: "No, that's not correct."

Solicitor Scott Taylor, for Mr Cross, said the police officer's actions had been "indefensible" and he had showed "supreme arrogance".

He said the officer's behaviour had wasted Cleveland tax payers' money adding: "Det Con McGeehan has pushed a former offender back into a life of crime."