AN unwanted mongrel rescued from an animal shelter has become a police force's star recruit.

Bouncer ended up in a shelter after he was found limping through the streets of Morpeth, Northumberland, having been abandoned.

The scruffy black and white puppy was overlooked by dozens of visitors to the shelter, but finally found his saviour when he caught the attention of PC Paul Johnstone, from Northumbria Police.

The bobby was visiting Benton Dog and Cat Shelter, in Newcastle, when he spotted Bouncer and took him away to start a new life working with the police.

After being put through intensive training schedule, he has emerged as the force's most effective sniffer dog and patrols airports, ferry terminals and nightclubs, weeding out drugs.

PC Johnstone said: "We had been searching for new recruits for a while and we went on a whim to the shelter and I picked Bouncer out of around 50 dogs.

"He had such a personality and I picked him out of the crowd straight away."

Bouncer is the force's first ever Passive Alert Narcotics Detection Dog and is used to scan people for the presence of controlled drugs such as heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy and amphetamines.

He checks the air around an individual and will indicate when someone is carrying controlled drugs by freezing in front of them until given instructions by PC Johnstone.

Inspector Terry Davison, of Northumbria Police dog section, at Ponteland said: "He goes to show that most dogs, whether they have a pedigree or not, have a capability that can be put to good use.

Bouncer now lives with the Johnstone family plus the officer's general purpose police dog, a German shepherd called Bandit.