AN ex-police officer, jailed for a crime he says he did not commit, has spoken of a frustrating wait to clear his name.

An investigation into claims that Cleveland traffic officer Sultam Alam, 39, was wrongly jailed for 18 months may be ready in May, more than two years after it was launched.

Breaking his silence for the first time, the father-of-two told of his concern that not one officer implicated in the affair has been suspended from duty.

He said: "I have placed my faith in the inquiry team and am reassured by them that their investigation will be thorough and impartial."

Eight Cleveland officers were suspended during the recently- completed Operation Lancet anti-police corruption inquiry.

Mr Alam said: "I find myself unable to make any long-term plans until this matter is brought to a conclusion.".

The force's only ethnic officer, he was jailed for 18 months in 1996 for handling stolen cars. He pleaded not guilty, and protested that he had been set up. He served nine months.

A year before he was jailed, he took the force to an industrial tribunal claiming racial discrimination. He lost his appeal, but chairman Peter Rennie accused some senior officers of suffering a "convenient and partial loss of memory".

Superintendent Norman Taylor, part of the continuing investigating team, said: "It has been an extremely thorough investigation - but a very complex one.