PC gave information to criminal partner - tribunal

PC Maryam Ilyas' links to the criminal were exposed when he was arrested in July

An ex-West Yorkshire Police officer who passed confidential information to her convicted criminal boyfriend while still on the force has been found guilty of gross misconduct.

Maryam Ilyas' links to the man were exposed when he was arrested in July on suspicion of drug dealing, a tribunal heard.

Ms Ilyas, who did not attend the hearing in Wakefield on Wednesday, was said to have admitted "full responsibility" for her actions and the tribunal was told she would have been sacked from the force had she not already resigned.

The criminal's identity was not revealed, however, after the tribunal chair rejected a joint application by the BBC and The Sun to lift a reporting restriction anonymising him.

Catherine Hankinson, the force's former deputy chief constable, said the man's "welfare" would be "adversely" affected if he was named in the proceedings.

It was not said what his previous convictions were for.

Ms Ilyas did not attend the hearing, at West Yorkshire Police HQ in Wakefield

The hearing, at the force's headquarters, was told that Ilyas, who joined West Yorkshire Police in June 2024, had failed to notify the force of her links to the man during the vetting process when she was recruited.

However, when the man was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of dealing drugs, messages on his mobile phone linked him to Ms Ilyas.

It was later found that Ms Ilyas had used police computer systems to search for details about the man on three occasions between March and May 2025 without operational reasons to do so.

The tribunal heard that the criminal had sent pictures of a "large amount of money" to Ms Ilyas and discussed drug dealing.

She was found to have passed confidential information and images about a police operation to him and shown him his profile on the force's systems.

It was said that when interviewed, Ms Ilyas claimed to have separated from the man in January 2025 and that she was "unaware of his history", though the tribunal concluded this was a lie.

Ms Hankinson ruled that messages between the two indicated an "existing relationship" up to July 2025, and that the officer's conduct had been "repeated", "sustained" and "intentional".

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.