A PROBE into claims that members of a North-East constabulary were involved in helping to arm a man later arrested for murder, has unearthed "systematic failures of force procedures".

Middlesbrough man Lee King, 32, was gunned down on the town's Park End estate in January 2000.

The man arrested and charged with his murder, but subsequently cleared by a jury at Teesside Crown Court, was convicted armed robber Keith McQuade.

Local businessman Joe Livingstone claimed at a drugs trial at Teesside Crown Court in 2003 that six weeks before the murder he was approached by McQuade who asked for a £600 loan with which to buy guns for an armed robbery he was planning.

Mr Livingstone alleged Cleveland Police authorised him to hand over the cash, while officers kept McQuade under surveillance, but they lost sight of him between December 18 and January 28, when he was arrested for Lee King's murder.

An investigation into the affair by officers from the Northumbria, Durham, and Sussex forces and the Independent Police Complaints Commission, has found "no evidence to connect the firearm used in this murder with the events of mid-December".

There was also no evidence that McQuade even bought a gun, nor that the planned robbery took place.

But the inquiry found the performance of five Cleveland Police officers fell below the standard expected of them.

Gary Garland, IPCC Commissioner for the North-East, said the investigations had produced clear evidence highlighting "shortfalls in the actions and procedures implemented by a number of individuals, who have now received advice from senior officers".

He added: "Failings in the systems Cleveland Police had in place at the time for handling informants were also identified."

He said that since those events the senior management team had changed at Cleveland Police while he was satisfied problems with the handling of informant information would never again arise.