Between 2012 and 2022, Line
of Duty told the story of AC-12,
a fictional anti-corruption unit
that famously went
after bent coppers.
But over 15 years prior to
that hitting our screens,
before that series was dreamt
up by its creator, Jed Mercurio,
a little-known unit of the
Met was being secretly set up
to crack the cycle of
corruption that had infiltrated
the country's
biggest police force.
I was shocked. Drug dealing,
kidnap, armed robbery
being carried out by police
officers was almost fiction,
but it wasn't. It was a reality.
Amid the scandals that
engulfed the early nineties,
a few brave senior police chiefs
decided a new tactic was needed.
This could be a film.
You couldn't make it up.
A tactic that would go after
those directly responsible
for the corruption to
catch them in the act.
Greed, ego, power. It's
all out there for grabs.
The fact that it was
nicknamed the Ghost Squad
sums it up really.
No one knew it existed,
and that's exactly
how they'd want it.
That unit's name was CIB3,
and for the first time,
this is its story.
In the late 1990s CIB3
carried out one of their most
high-profile cases investigating
a team of hard drinking
rogue detectives who called
themselves the groovy g*ng.
Known as Operation Russia,
the case starts with the
story of Neil Putnam,
an ambitious detective
who wanted to join
the perceived elite of the
southeast regional crime squad.
Putnam always wanted
to join the police.
He joined very young.
It was his ambition and
his words, not mine.
When he joined, he said
he wanted to serve London
and give something back.
He went on, he was a
successful police officer,
and he was a successful
detective, but his main ambition
was to tackle the top
echelon of criminals.
And again, in his
words, he wanted to join
the regional crime squad that
he considered to be the elite
and the best of the best.
So, he went on to
join the South East
regional crime squad at Dulwich.
But on his very first
day with the groovy g*ng,
Putnam was to realise that
this was no ordinary crime team.
He was taken out for drinks
with the team and to be honest,
that was sort of
quite normal practice.
But in his case, he was
asked did he have any debts,
and somebody made the
comment that his debt
would soon disappear on
the regional crime squad
and that he would
be looked after.
Again, in Putnam's words
were that he sort of read
between the lines on
that and he did wonder
at that stage whether or
not corruption was involved.
Putnam's instinct was
correct, and it wasn't long
before the charismatic
and self-styled leader of
the groovy g*ng, Detective
Constable Bob Clark
was asking him for favours.
There was information
from an informant
that there was going to
be a drop of cannabis,
but Clark had asked Putnam
whether or not he had a
holdall he could borrow, and
Putnam gave him his holdall
and he didn't ask
why, I don't think.
But there came a time
a couple of days later
where Putnam was given £300
just thrust in his hand
by Clark saying, that's
for you and he took it.
I mean from memory, Putnam
says he was surprised,
but he took it.
And at that point there
is really no going back
because he had discovered
in the equipment room
at East Dulwich at the
squad office, his holdall,
and within his holdall, he had
discovered traces of cannabis.
It was that point; I think
he realised that Clark or
somebody had stolen some of
the cannabis that had been
dropped that night
and the £300 was
for being blunt - was his cut.
And things were about to
get a whole lot worse.
Clark and Putnam were
involved in a police raid
on a local drugs deal at
a golf course in Croydon,
where Putnam witness
Clark placed a quantity of
the ill*gal drugs they had
seized into another large
holdall.
At that point, Clark asked
him if he knew a quiet spot,
which he knew the area and
I believe it was a wood
that they both went to,
and it was pretty clear
that some of the cannabis
was stolen by Clark.
The following morning,
Putnam went to Clark's flat
where he was handed
the white envelope.
He realised that
was containing cash.
He went to a quiet spot
that he knew as a kid,
and he counted that,
and it was £2,000.
So, at that point, he's now
in real trouble because here
he has witnessed taking cannabis
from a hundred kilos stash.
He's then not only
witnessed that taking,
he's then received
his share £2,000.
Putnam was now becoming
embroiled in serious police
corruption and there was
seemingly no turning back.
Taking his cue from Clark and
the rest of the groovy g*ng
he had now begun
stealing for himself.
The behaviour of the corrupt
team reached new lows
when they raided a property on
a tip off in search of drugs.
In the flat, there
was a load of cash.
Putnam says his words, that
there was cash everywhere.
Putnam had now become
stealing for himself because
nobody really trusted Clark to
give, for want of a better word,
divvy up the money fairly.
To me that spells
out that corruption
There is no owner
amongst thieves.
What appeared to have started
out is a couple of people
stealing from tip-offs
from informants to then
others stealing
amongst themselves.
They were all stealing.
So, it then almost
becomes part of the norm.
The corruption becomes part
of the norm of the activity
of that particular
team at East Dulwich.
The story then takes a twist.
Bob Clark was known as
something of a maverick,
and along with partner
Chris Drury had a reputation
for employing
unorthodox tactics.
But the relationship
Clark developed with
one of his informers,
big time cocaine dealer,
Eve Fleckney, crossed the
line in more ways than one.
Robert Clark was suspected
of being involved in the
protection of Eve Fleckney
because he was her handler.
He handled her as an informant.
It also emerged during
the CIB3 operation,
the two were more than
officer and informant.
They were in fact, lovers.
Fleckney had passed
information or tipped off Clark
about another drug dealer
called Guildford John.
I take it he lived in Guildford,
that had possession of a load
of cannabis, £27,000 worth.
And Clark and Drury turned up
and took the drugs from him,
but they didn't arrest him.
They let him keep
whatever cash he had,
but they took the full amount
of the drugs and off they
carried them, and
he wasn't arrested
and there was no further
action taken against him.
However, Guilford John's
involvement didn't end there
and a year later on, another
tip-off partner and his team
raided what they thought
was his safe house.
So, a year later, the
Southeast Regional Crime Squad
received the same tip
off that Guildford John
was in possession of cannabis,
and it was believed to be
in a house in the countryside,
which was believed to be,
by the police, his safe house.
Putnam then led the team to
that address, to steal the drugs
Unfortunately, it wasn't
Guildford John's house,
it was his friend's
house who had I think
about two or three ounces of
cannabis for personal use.
There was no stash, it
wasn't a safe house.
Putnam was adamant that drugs
were hidden there somewhere,
and he started
threatening this guy
and he started making
threats that he'd bring
heavy plant gear in
to dig up the garden.
But it became apparent, I
suspect to Putnam that actually
they'd made a big mistake
here because this guy was just
a happy little soldier
in a house and all he did
was know Guildford John.
Possibly that's where he got
his cannabis from, who knows?
And he had £800, which was
him and his partner's savings.
And it came to the point
where I think they accepted
that they got it wrong, the
police and then Putnam said
that he'd keep the £800
and let the guy keep his
two or three ounces of cannabis
and off they went and
never to be seen again.
By now, Eve Fleckney's
drug dealing,
and the subsequent
suspicions of corruption
started to attract
attention from soon to be
CIB3 Chief, Dave Wood.
At this point in time, Fleckney
was becoming on the radar
as a significant drug dealer
and known to Dave Wood
who was the branch
commander at Surbiton.
And that meant he basically
was in charge of that office
and one of his DI's
was Martin Bridger.
They became concerned,
considerably concerned
because for want of a
better word, their jobs kept
blowing out against Fleckney.
Every time they tried to get
any evidence or anything,
they couldn't, and
we know now know why;
because she was
getting tipped off.
It was clear their work
was being compromised,
and if Wood and Bridger were
to move against Fleckney,
they would need to launch a
covert proactive investigation.
So, Dave Wood took the
decision to move Martin Bridger
and a small team away
from the Surbiton office.
He didn't know where
the threat was,
was the threat in his
team? He didn't know.
There was a threat from
Clark at that stage.
I think there came a point
where it did become apparent
that Fleckney was an
informant for Clark.
So, at this stage, CIB3 had
established that there was a
relationship between Robert
Clark and Eve Fleckney,
but what was needed was
proper strong evidence
that was going to stand
up in court and that was
always the case with CIB3.
They had to get that evidence,
catch people
red-handed preferably.
So, Martin Bridger led an
operation, quite a significant
and detailed surveillance
operation offensive,
against Eve Fleckney
because of course he was
operating covertly
with his team.
Nobody knew what he was doing.
So therefore, and he left
no trace in relation to
general police inquiries
that he was interested in
Fleckney, and he built
up a case against her.
The first port of call
for trying to understand
what was going on was
to bug Fleckney's house.
The ongoing
surveillance of Fleckney
would provide Bridger's
team with a valuable lead.
So, out of all the
surveillance on Fleckney,
Martin Bridger's team
became aware that one of
the persons that she was
supplying to was Guildford John.
He was carrying drugs from
a big-time dealer in London
out to Surrey when he
was stopped and arrested.
And at that stage, he made
the remark regarding the fact
was - were they going to
take his drugs and let him go
because that's what
happened the last time.
And the officers in the
car didn't know what
he was talking about, but
asked him, well last time,
what do you mean, last time?
He then said that he'd been
stopped by two officers
previously a few years
before, and the two officers,
instead of taking him
in, had taken drugs
from the boot of his car
worth £70,000 he said.
Martin Bridger and his
team decided to act
on Guildford John's revelations.
Martin did listen
to what he said.
So, it's at this point Bridger's
suspicion was almost confirmed
in that yes, there
was corrupt activity.
It was reported then to the
Complaints Investigation Bureau,
CIB2 but the East Dulwich
office became aware
that they were
under investigation.
They made a pact to say nothing
and deny it in its entirety.
Who would believe a drug dealer?
Would a jury believe
a drug dealer
against 4 cops giving evidence?
It was just unheard
of to be honest,
and the inquiry
just diminished it.
It stopped because they
couldn't take it any further.
But they could however
arrest Fleckney.
Her time in the fast lane as
an untouchable drug dealer
protected by the police
was coming to an end.
At the time of her arrest, she
actually said to the officers,
I believe it was Martin Bridger,
'What's happening?'
'What's going on?'
'Have I got to go to
the police station?'
'What do you mean I've got
to go to the police station?'
She was clearly taken back
and completely surprised
the fact that she'd
been arrested,
which goes to show that
her basic understanding
was that would never happen
because here was Bob Clark,
serving officer, protecting her.
But it did happen, and
she was duly charged and
prosecuted and then she was
sentenced to 15 years custodial.
But Eve Fleckney had no
intention of serving 15 years.
Dave Wood was now leading
the newly formed CIB3
and a few weeks
into her sentence,
she reached out to him
suggesting she was willing to
talk.
Shortly after her
sentence was delivered,
she made a call from
prison to Dave Wood. s.
So, Dave Wood went along
and actually interviewed her
himself and she revealed
what was extremely disturbing
catalogue of how that
she was protected
by police officers
and namely Clark.
Dave Wood says his view,
she was in love with Clark
and how that the officers
would, she tipped them off,
they would intercept drugs,
they would either steal
the whole amount and
let the person go
or they would
steal some of them.
They stole cash and then
Clark gave her the stolen
drugs back and
she recycled them,
and she was quite
happy to reveal her own
whole involvement in that
for a reduced sentence.
What, in those days was
commonly known as a supergrass.
In response to
Fleckney's allegations,
CIB3 formed Operation
Russia and promptly arrested
Clark and Drury,
but the pair weren't as
forthcoming as Fleckney.
On arrest they made no comment
to all of the allegations,
which to be honest you'd
expect because here they were,
police officers, and here were
CIB3 alleging that they'd stole
a load of drugs and it
was using the word of
a convicted drug dealer, not
only a convicted drug dealer,
but a substantial
convicted drug dealer.
15 years is a long time.
Dave Wood turned his
attention to other
members of their team,
including Neil Putnam.
They went to Putnam's house,
took Putnam outside into the
garden and described how they
were after Clark and Drury.
They were the main targets,
so Putnam had a problem.
Once in custody, Putnam
turned immediately and
followed Fleckney in
turning Supergrass.
Having recently become
a born-again Christian,
it appeared he
wanted to come clean,
and whilst his reputation as
a detective was in tatters,
his value as a material
witness of CIB3 was priceless.
It was the icing on the cake.
It was a jewel in the crown
because here was a person that,
yes, he was a cop, but
he was willing to admit
his offences that he was
involved in and actually
corroborate
what Fleckney had said
because at the end of the day,
Fleckney was a drug dealer
and a convicted drug dealer.
Putnam wasn't. He was a cop,
but he was a corrupt cop.
However, Chief
Superintendent John Yates,
who was overseeing the case,
had his suspicions that Putnam
was holding back
vital information.
He decided to lean on him.
Yates, he was of the opinion,
and I think his
team were as well.
Putnam was holding back.
He was talking about
Drury and Clark,
but he wasn't talking
about any other officers.
So, John Yates made the
decision that he would
actually remove him from
the protected custody.
So that in effect meant
that he would remove him
from the protected witnesses
it was in those days.
That system, which also
meant his wife as well
because his wife was being
assisted in the witness scheme,
protected witness scheme,
and that he would be put
back into mainstream policing.
He couldn't expect any
reduction in sentence
because he wasn't telling the
full truth, and he certainly
wouldn't want to be in a prison
system being a corrupt cop.
They went back to Putnam
and said, 'If you are after
becoming an informant for
us, a supergrass for us,
you must tell us all,
everything, that's part of the
deal.'
'You get dealt with leniently
for the corruption that
you've been involved in, but
you have to tell everything.'
It was an impossible choice
for Putnam, protect his friends
or lose protection for
himself and his family.
So, he then made the choice,
and I don't think he really had
a choice personally, to tell
all.
Now, CIB3 had two
supergrasses to
provide evidence against
the rogue detectives.
In all five serving
officers, Clark, and Drury
and three others were
convicted of corruption.
So, in that sense it
was seen as a success;
five officers down all to a
successful CIB3 operation.
However, whilst Clark
and Drury served out
their lengthy sentences,
there was a twist on
their release from prison.
Some years later,
Clark and Drury decided
to appeal against their
convictions and sentences,
which had been quite hefty.
I believe Clark actually served
10 years of the 12 years,
and I think a Drury
served eight years.
But there came a point after
they'd been released where
the court of appeal in 2010
ruled that there was
exploitatory
material that had been
withheld at the trial
and may have affected
their conviction.
Therefore, the judge
ordered the retrial.
The retrial collapsed when
Eve Fleckney having already
served most of her prison
sentence, refused to stand
as a witness against Bob Clark.
She also intimated that
she'd been pressurised
to turn supergrass
in the first trial.
The main way that Clark
and Drury won their appeal
was because Eve Fleckney
flatly refused to give
any kind of evidence.
She withdrew her
evidence entirely
saying she'd been
forced into it.
She'd always been a reluctant
witness at the actual trial,
but at the appeal it was
made clear she was never
ever going to appear against
Clark and Drury. Why?
One will never know
what her motives were.
As to how I feel about
that, I think it's best
to adopt the same answers that
Robert Clark gave to his
police questioners; No comment.
A critical factor around
much of corruption
is the relationship between
officers and informants.
In the 1990s, the regulations
weren't as clear as they are now
and sometimes the relationships
between informants
and handlers weren't
very clearly defined.
If you had an informant,
you should always meet
that informant with
another officer.
Often not often, but
sometimes that didn't occur,
so therefore this relationship
can build up and almost
the Stockholm situation
can become apparent
where a handler
becomes too involved
or too close to that informant.
The problem with the
handling of informants
is you want to push
the boundaries to glean
as much information and
intelligence as you can
to then investigate it.
And in doing so, you
can't do that 10 foot away
from the informant in
terms of relationship.
You've got to get on with
them, you've got to go
for a beer with them, you've
got to go for a curry with 'em,
and therefore you start
actually becoming friendly.
They would meet up,
they'd go for drinks,
they'd go for food together,
and that's where the information
exchange would happen.
It was often the
relationships between
a detective and an informant.
There was a one-to-one
relationship that
nobody else could be part of.
'I'll go and speak
to my informant.'
'My informant tells me this.'
So, there would be a
very close relationship
between informants and
detective, which was sacrosanct,
and nobody had access,
often, to the informant.
But you have to have
strict boundaries,
and I think it starts to
go astray when people
some detectives would meet
an informant, not record it,
start to bypass the regulations,
boundaries get blurred.
The officer got too
close to the informant
and that's when it all
started to go wrong.
If you don't play by the book,
it's all out there for grabs.
There was one particular
case with a DC
that was running an
informant, and the payments
were not necessarily going
back to the informant.
They were being shared
between the informant
and the officer.
It was very much
open to corruption
because where the
informants were being paid,
it did cross over into
the other way round
where the informants would
then pay the police officers
themselves to turn a
blind eye or to not
notice what they were doing.
And this could be with low level
and higher-level
type crimes as well.
The power games between the
criminal who's trying to
find a corrupt cop and the
corrupt cop themselves.
The dynamic between
the two is fascinating.
They're vying for
position and power.
There's no winners ever
going to be out of it
because inevitably
it's all going to
go horribly wrong,
they'll get caught
and they're playing
games with each other.
They're hugging each other,
they're having a pint,
but behind the scenes they
don't trust each other
and they're just looking
out for the b*ll*ts that are
going to fly over the counter.
If they want to live like that,
good luck to 'em, I don't
want to live like that.
99.9% of informants being
run in the early 90s were run
very, very professionally.
But what we do know
now, not from just
this investigation, Russia, but
from other CIB investigations,
there were some bad apples.
In early 2000, CIB3 led an
investigation into a detective
with links to drug
dealers, money launderers
and g*ng members who became
involved in a plot to kidnap,
and m*rder an associate who
tried to rip off the wrong
people
Operation Greyhound was
probably in terms of creativity
on the investigation strategy,
this was right up there.
Operation Greyhound was an
investigation into Martin Morgan
He'd been at Stoke Newington.
That was a hotbed of
corruption at that time in
North London and then
he joined SERCS, that's
the South East
Regional Crime squad.
So, he'd been around.
His previous experience
as a detective
in operating serious crime
was pretty admirable.
He was a very good
detective, he got results.
He knew undercover policing,
he knew covert policing,
he knew proactive policing.
He was an individual that
actually people looked up to.
But he had a side to him, which
was obviously the dark side.
And when you got to
see his lifestyle,
he was in the category of
those who wanted a lifestyle
that he couldn't fund
off his own salary.
He'd long been
suspected of corruption,
but the problem was getting
evidence against him.
The old CIB2 tended to be
reactive, not proactive like
CIB3.
So, they looked back at
crimes or where there had been
allegations of corruption.
But of course, it's very
difficult to get evidence of
something
that's already happened,
especially when people don't
talk.
So, he'd been under
the radar basically,
but known as being
involved in corruption.
One of the criminals that
Morgan was suspected of having
a corrupt relationship with
was a man called Robert Kean.
Kean was a
well-connected criminal
operating at the top level.
The fact that he was able
to nurture corrupt contacts
within the Met, I mean,
that's not a walk in the park.
You've got to know
how to do that.
And he was on the payroll,
Martin Morgan, his job.
He was the cop on the inside
providing intelligence
to the criminal, giving
them heads up when they
need to worry about
things and basically
doing a corrupt job
for corrupt payments.
Where CIB2 had
previously failed to
get evidence against
Morgan, it was hoped
CIB3's ability to mount
proactive operations
would prove to be
the game changer.
So, they started doing
surveillance on him,
tapped his phones and
even had a bug in his car.
They gradually found evidence
not only of the relationship
with Kean but found that
Kean was wanting Morgan
to get information
about another criminal
called Ashley Sansom, who
was a money launderer.
Sansom was facilitating the
purchase of controlled drugs
from Spain, and he made
the mistake of running away
with the money, I believe with
half a million pounds sterling.
And of course, Kean
wanted the money back,
but to get that he
had to trace Sansom.
Kean needed to find
out where Sansom was
and basically level the score.
He had a co-conspirator
in a guy called Carl Wood
who also felt he had
been blighted and
been ripped off by Sansom.
So here you had at
least two, if not more,
people who wanted to get hold
of Sansom pretty damn quick.
How are they going to do that?
Well, the only way they
can do that is to pull on a
favour of Martin Morgan
and see whether or not he
could get some intelligence
as to where Sansom was.
CIB3 got wind of it, so they
mounted an investigation
to protect Sansom and also
convict Martin Morgan, Kean and
Carl Wood and anyone else
that wanted to join the g*ng.
It was Roger Critchell's job to
plan and execute the operation.
I got called in because I
had quite a lot of experience
in covert policing and using
covert techniques to lay
an evidence trail for Martin
Morgan or whoever to follow
to find Ashley Sansom.
My specific task was to come
up with an idea or come up
with how we were going
to lay an evidence trail.
Staying one step ahead of
an experienced detective
like Martin Morgan
was always going to
present a real
challenge to CIB3.
To go against a person of
Morgan's experienced knowledge
and in fairness, ability,
is very difficult,
because you've got to second
guess what Morgan is thinking
and that was extremely
difficult and was challenging.
Now, Morgan was a clever man.
He took careful steps to
avoid being associated
with the attempt to get Sansom.
And so, he had two detectives
that he worked with
in his own police station
who he enrolled to be part of
the team to try and find
out where Sansom was.
Martin Morgan knew that
Samson had a safe deposit box
in Edgeware, North London.
So, he sent two officers
down there with a false
search warrant to look
through his belongings.
It was hoped that this would
coax Samson out of hiding.
However, with CIB3
tracking their every move,
it provided them with a unique
opportunity to use Sansom
to start laying an evidence
trail against Morgan.
He put Sansom into the
bank shortly after the
search warrant was ex*cuted.
And the reason for doing
that was to get him on CCTV
so that Martin Morgan,
when he went to view
whether Sansom's still
around, he would see him.
We knew that Morgan would get
hold of copies of the CCTV
showing Sansom
going into the bank
to check his safety deposit box.
And then we would get Sansom
to phone Morgan's office
when we knew that Morgan
wasn't there to ask
why his safety deposit
box had been searched
and to leave a contact number
of a hotel down in Surrey.
That's outside of the Met
area, that means in the future
it reduces the wriggle room
that an appeal might be
that they said they're
legitimately in a hotel
or in the Met area.
They would have to find
a good reason why on duty
Morgan was in a
hotel room in Surrey.
That would be difficult for him.
We had decided that
we would get rooms,
one room that we would
make up to look like Sansom
was using it, using
items of his clothing,
using items of his
personal effects, etc, etc.
So, anybody going into
that room would genuinely
think that Ashley Sansom
was staying there.
And in the room next
door, we were CIB3
had the room bugged and were
monitoring through sound and
vision everything that was
going on in this hotel room.
It was extremely important to
be able to record in that room
because without it, we
wouldn't have the evidence,
we'd have just
somebody turning up.
So, with CIB3 having laid the
trap, the only question was
whether Morgan and his criminal
associates would fall into it.
If you're acting in a corrupt
manner, I think generally
you are looking over your
shoulder all the time.
Trying to speculate what
that must feel like,
how do lay in bed
straight at night?
When you know that you
are in the spotlight,
and you are being investigated,
you may be being followed,
but you will know those
tactics, so you become
aware of how to
protect yourself.
So even though you are
under investigation,
you'll know that somebody might
be listening to your phone,
somebody might be following
you, they may be looking
at your CCTV outside where
you live or where you go
to the gym or whatever.
So, you know some of the
tactics, but you also know that
the resources are infinite and
if the organisation actually
do want to catch you out and
do want to bring you to justice,
those resources are
huge, and they can do it.
So, it must be a very, very
difficult position to be in.
So, I think the
fear of being caught
and looking over your
shoulder must be dreadful.
I can only imagine that they
would feel sick to the stomach,
that they would be panicking,
they would be paranoid,
that they were
under surveillance.
They would feel total
and utter isolation
because they're not only
just betraying themselves,
a) they're betraying themselves,
b) They're betraying
their colleagues,
and c) they're going to
betray their families,
because if you put your job in
jeopardy as a corrupt officer
and the likelihood is that other
detectives will be investigating
you, that's scary in itself.
If you are caught and you're
found guilty, your house is
gone,
the family's security is gone,
your marriage is gone,
everything's gone for what?
That's what I never understand.
For what? For peanut bits of
money or for your own ego?
I have never ever understood
that relationship.
Why you think for one
minute that a villain
will stick up for you
because they won't.
It must be an awful place
to be in, the way you know
that at any moment in
time, you can have a knock
on your door and the likes
of myself standing there
to actually take you,
basically take you to jail.
However, I also have got
a theory that they become
so comfortable in that lifestyle
that they become completely
oblivious to that because
that is their new lifestyle,
and they think they're
completely untouchable
and they beget a false
confidence in their own
activities.
And thank goodness they
do because when you're
investigating them, you
want 'em to be c*ck.
You want 'em to be
overconfident because then
their guard goes down
and we can deploy some
really smart tactics to detect
them, gather the evidence
to prove or disprove their
criminality and if we prove it,
put them in front of the court
and they can grip the rail.
Corrupt detective Martin
Morgan, and his criminal
associate Robert Kean, were
now firmly in the sights of CIB3
Their plan was to lure Morgan
and Kean to a hotel room
in Surrey on the pretence
that Sansom was staying there.
Just as CIB3 had hoped
Morgan and Kean took the bait
and contacted the hotel using
Morgan's police authority
to find out which room
he was staying in.
Not long after the hiring
of that room, Kean turns up
and they break into
the room, Kean,
and they sit there
waiting for him.
Not long after that, the two
DC's who were the accomplices
of Morgan from the
same detective office,
they turned up at the
hotel along with Morgan.
I mean, if there was ever any
doubt as to whether or not
Martin Morgan was
corrupt, up to no good,
as part of this operation.
When he arrived at the
hotel in the car park,
he doesn't go through
the front entrance.
He acts in a furtive
way, a suspicious way.
He acts just like a criminal.
He's put gloves on to protect
any forensic fingerprints.
He goes up into the hotel
through the fire exit,
evading an awful lot
of that CCTV coverage,
and then he makes his
entrance into the hotel room.
They see we've planted
Sansom's car in the car park,
so they know that they've
got the right hotel.
That all adds up with
the booking of the room
and it's a waiting game.
What then was witnessed
under the bugging was
absolutely shocking.
They start talking about what
they're going to do to him,
at which stage Kean basically
said that they would
hit him over the head,
roll him in the carpet,
put him in the boot of
their car from the window
and take him to Norfolk where
there was a farm or something,
and they would get
their money back.
And it was at that
point where Morgan asked
what would they do if
he didn't say anything
about the money and they
indicated they would k*ll him.
Here we had Martin
Morgan, he'd sign on duty
at his police station.
He was actively on
duty in a hotel room,
being party to a
three-way conversation,
where they were plotting to
t*rture, gouge out the eyes
of Sansom when he comes
in the hotel room,
t*rture him in other ways, and
then ultimately m*rder him,
wrap him up in the
rug of the hotel room,
take him out of the hotel
and put him in a car crusher.
And it was Morgan that said
that his mate had a car crusher
down in Plaistow and
that they would put
him there to get
rid of the body.
Of course, CIB3 was
taping all this stuff,
and it was all good hard
evidence tying Morgan into it.
I mean the shocking element
about all of this is that
you are witnessing
from all the bugging,
that an officer who
was on duty was part of
a conspiracy to plot
to k*ll someone.
What was clear from the
surveillance footage
was that Martin Morgan
had earned the respect
of his fellow criminals.
In the hotel room,
Kean said to Carl Wood,
'Well, he thinks like us, he's
one of us. He's a good guy.'
It is shocking coming
from a criminal.
I mean, you would anticipate
that Morgan, because of
the type of operations
that he was involved in,
would think like have
to think like a criminal,
but to actually get the criminal
saying that sort of suggests
how they held him, what
esteem they held Morgan in.
But of course, it
wasn't just respect
that Morgan was working for.
The Kean-Morgan relationship
was an interesting one.
Morgan appears to have
carried out various favours
for Kean on this occasion.
CIB3 in their surveillance
and bugging and so on,
discovered that Morgan
was being offered £50,000
as reward for finding Sansom.
£50,000 in those days
was a lot of money.
It was well over Morgan's
salary, way over his annual
salary,
and he decided to go ahead
and work for his
paymaster, Robert Kean.
In fact, when we did his
investigation on his finances,
he didn't touch his salary
for a good 18 months
because he didn't need to.
His salary went straight into
the bank and he was living
off the backhanders that
he was getting from Kean.
Back at the hotel,
Morgan and Kean were
starting to get impatient.
They waited there
a good 36 hours,
obviously no one turns
up and then they leave.
They do a little passing shot
as they walk out through the
car park, and they slash the
car tyres of Sansom's car.
We don't know why they did that.
I still don't know to this day
what possessed them to do that.
But the random slashing of
the car tyre unbeknown to them
gave me a good opportunity
because it allowed me to then
get his car tyres replaced
using Sansom's credit card.
So, we purchased three tyres
for the car and just as we
thought Morgan was notified
that the card had been used.
So, we then have Morgan
then furthermore taking that
opportunity and the
evidence of him actually
monitoring the card
and telling Kean.
With evidence mounting
against the corrupt Morgan
and his criminal associates,
CIB3 were weighing up
when to make their move.
However, when they received
intelligence that Kean
was no longer in the country,
they were forced into action.
It became known shortly after
the use of the credit card
that the main principle Kean
was going to flee to Spain,
and he did, he actually left
the country and went to Spain
and was subsequently extradited.
So, the arrests
were then put in.
The irrefutable evidence
inevitably led to
guilty sentences
being handed down.
But it was at their sentencing
where Morgan's loyalty
to Kean was laid bare
for the world to see.
Their sentencing at the
Old Bailey was remarkable
and quite unique.
In fact, criminals and their
police handlers usually kept
well apart, but Morgan arrived
in the same car as Kean.
So, there was quite
a scrum as Morgan and
Kean entered the building.
And Morgan to the very end
was trying to protect Kean
from this scrum of people.
This was Morgan obeying his
master right to the very end.
I mean, from my point
of view, the operation
was extremely successful
because we were given a task
which was a difficult and
challenging task to test whether
or not Morgan was going
to do what it was believed
he was going to do.
And that was try
and track down using
police powers to find Sansom.
And we proved it and it led
to guilty pleas in the end
and he received a significant
custodial sentence.
So, it was extremely
successful in my mind.
In 1998, at the launch
of Operation Ethiopia,
Metropolitan Police Chief
Paul Condon told a common
select committee that the
force could have as many as
250 corrupt officers
within its ranks.
Whilst CIB3 didn't convict
anywhere near that number,
the impact of their
investigations and indeed the
fact
the Ghost Squad existed at all,
certainly left its
mark upon the Met.
I mean, if you look back at
the operations within CIB3
in its formation after CIB2
and intelligence gathering,
that's a landmark within
the history of the Met
and the way at which
it tackled corruption.
The legacy of CIB3 is that
not only did they put away
behind bars many
corrupt officers,
but their whole operation
had a deterrent effect.
It put fear amongst detectives
that if ever they were tempted
into being corrupt that they
could well end up in prison.
Some of the work that CIB3 did
in putting out their stings
and taking out some of the
individuals became legendary
and it became almost a deterrent
for other people to say,
if you are corrupt, this is the
length that the police service
will go to get you out.
They will follow you,
they will surveil you,
they will listen to
your conversations,
and they will tap your phones.
So, I think it was a
really good forerunner
for the corruption command.
What it proved was that there
was a problem back in 1990,
late 90s, early 2000s.
It was tackled, and it was
tackled in a robust way.
So, I think the good thing
that's come out of it is nobody
has sat back on their laurels.
People in policing as it's
gone through the last 23 years,
they've actually kept
their eye on corruption.
And that's why I think we
won't see again the scale
of corruption that we had back
in the late 90s, early 2000s.
There will always be corruption,
of course, there will, but
not on the scale that it was.
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01x03 - Episode 3
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The Real Line of Duty tells the story of an undercover police unit set up to crack the cycle of corruption that engulfed the Met in the 90s, and the brave officers who fought for justice from within.
The Real Line of Duty tells the story of an undercover police unit set up to crack the cycle of corruption that engulfed the Met in the 90s, and the brave officers who fought for justice from within.