A senior detective accused of swindling over £12,000 from his police social club walked free from court yesterday.
Ian Smith - a former fraud squad inspector - was charged with stealing £9,045 in l998 and £3,514 in l999 from Mill Bank Station Club, South Shields, to settle debts.
But the officer, who has now retired from Northumbria Police Force, was cleared by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday.
Afterwards Mr Smith, 51, of South Shields, South Tyneside, described the ordeal as "a traumatic experience."
His barrister Simon Myerson told the jury that the allegations were "nonsense" and that the club's accounts were shambolic when Mr Smith took the post of treasurer.
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