Officers say they should have reported colleague sooner

Both officers claim they witnessed drugs being returned to users for information

Two police officers have spoken of their regret at failing to report a colleague accused of supplying drugs.

PC Lauren Rickwood and PC Ben Whitby told a misconduct hearing they were wrong to wait weeks before raising the alarm about PC Jonathan Biggins.

Both were on separate secondments in Weston-super-Mare when they say the officer seized and returned substances to users in exchange for information.

PC Biggins, who has since resigned, denies the allegations.

PC Rickwood, who had been an officer less than a year, was on her first patrol with the team when they stopped a known drug user.

She told the Avon and Somerset Constabulary panel she witnessed PC Biggins seizing and then returning drugs to a known user after receiving information about where he bought it.

The information turned out to be accurate and the three men were arrested.

'Alienated and badly treated'

PC Whitby told the hearing that it was "very concerning" for a police officer to supply drugs to someone.

He said PC Biggins had seized two wraps of crack cocaine from a known user during their patrol but the following day was only booking in one wrap into the evidence stores.

He said he believed the man had given information about his dealer, who was arrested that day, in exchange for some of his drugs back.

PC Whitby said: "I regret enormously the amount of time it took to make this report and bring it to someone's attention."

He said part of the reason for the delay was that he had seen some colleagues "alienated and treated badly" for reporting wrongdoing.

"Selfishly I didn't want this to be my experience, but in hindsight I appreciate this was the wrong decision."

The hearing continues.