A ROOKIE cop with a nose for the job passed the canine equivalent of his driving test yesterday.

Puppy Dibley became Durham Police's latest recruit when he sniffed out a "suspect" with a bag of drugs in Darlington's busy Cornmill Centre.

Dibley, a 20-month-old golden labrador, and his handler, PC Alison Dawson, passed the test to get a licence from the Home Office so he can work as a covert sniffer dog.

He and PC Dawson will patrol streets, pubs, nightclubs, stations, outside schools and shopping centres to find drugs.

The pair also made history yesterday, when PC Dawson became the only officer in the country to work with two drugs dogs of this type.

However, their efforts were nearly thwarted when PC Dawson saw her mother on an escalator, at the same time as Dibley sniffed out some suspicious scents.

PC Dawson also works with Jake, a four-year-old labrador and the pair have made 43 arrests in Chester-le-Street and Durham in three-and-a-half years. As a result, five people have been jailed.

Many pubs in the area have a picture of Jake in their windows to deter people with drugs from entering the premises.

However, now she has two dogs, PC Dawson's patch has been extended to a much larger part of the county.

She said: "Dibley has a lot of potential, he is very friendly and he is very easy to work with.

"We walk past people so quickly and quietly, often they do not know they have been searched."

They will continue to go into schools to educate pupils about the perils of drugs.